Sarah Wilson and Ari Cohen in Awake and Sing! Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann.
Soulpepper presents
Awake and Sing!
By Clifford Odets
Featuring Derek Boyes, Ari Cohen, Oliver Dennis, Matthew Edison, Jonathan Gould, Michael Hanrahan, Nancy Palk, William Webster, and Sarah Wilson
Runs June 16 – June 31 @ the Young Centre for the Performing Arts
By Daina Valiulis
Clifford Odets’ American tale offers a revealing, raw look at a Jewish family in New York during the Depression. Written by Odets in 1931, Awake and Sing! was an outlet for his professional frustration and fierce resentment — tones that characterize the matriarch/centerpiece of the play, Bessie (Nancy Palk).
Bessie’s objective during these dark days is to keep her family fed and together. In the process, however, she fails to acknowledge her children’s dreams for their own happiness, and their hopes for the future when it’s tempting to believe there is none. Bessie forces her daughter Hennie (Sarah Wilson), who is pregnant by another man, to marry Sam (Matthew Edison), a Jewish boy fresh off the boat whose weak English and eager desperation to please irritate Hennie to no end. Bessie also tries to keep her son Ralph (Jonathan Gould) under her thumb with attempts to squash his relationship with Blanche, a “shiksa” girl with whom he is in love. The patriarch of the family, Myron (Derek Boyes), is a fool who kowtows to his wife’s whims. Jacob, the grandfather, played by Soulpepper founding member William Webster, is the only one with a positive attitude, strongly encouraging his grandson to “awake and sing!” and pursue his happiness despite the misery of the Depression.
The passionate, open, emotionally raw script is somewhat unevenly handled in this production. Genuine, raw emotion at times seemed to drive the characters. However, oftentimes the play felt too rehearsed. This was especially true for Palk and Wilson, who were inconsistent — their performances seemed very staged and their movements calculated and self-conscious.
For example, in several scenes, Wilson reacts slightly before her character’s lover, Moe (Ari Cohen), grabs her unexpectedly. It seems like she’s anticipating the script ahead of schedule. Palk, at times, seemed to be going through the motions, her speeches moving quickly and with a recitative cadence, the opposite of which would be more appropriate for Bessie’s character, especially in a play as instinctively and openly blunt as Odets’.
However, both Wilson and Palk played the moments of crisis extremely well. They very often brought genuine tears to their eyes, which helped redeem their performances. When it dawns on Bessie that her daughter is pregnant, Palk breathes in to utter her next words and the audience can see all the rage, disbelief, and panic bubble to the surface in her eyes, exploding with the beautifully crafted script. It was one of the most striking and genuine moments of the play, making some of the stiffness forgivable and the story more believable.
The male characters were more consistent. The best, most genuine and present scenes occurred when Ralph seeks solace and Jacob’s ear. Gould and Webster were believable as grandfather and grandson and had great chemistry — they reacted to each other as if hearing the words for the first time and immediately established the close bond the characters share, making it all the more tragic when misfortune befalls Jacob. Webster is consistently genuine and subtle in his acting and Gould endearing as the idealistic young Ralph. Boyes, as the unassuming Myron, used astute comedic skill to break the tension in the final scene by wandering in, making faces in the mirror and fixing himself a snack — blissfully unaware of the feeling in the room.
While a bit put on at times, Awake and Sing! eventually grounds itself in Odets’ words and passion, producing a solid show. The audience feels deeply for the characters by the end; the message of perseverance is clear. Although it received mixed reception when it was first performed in 1935, Awake and Sing! has become an American classic.
