Molasses Tank, one of Charlestown Working Theater's resident companies, has mounted a darkly comic version of German filmmaker/playwright Manfred Karge's 1986 "The Conquest of the South Pole," an allegorical romp in the Brechtian tradition. This 90 minute play, originally done by the Berliner Ensemble, visits a small group of unemployed men, who all feel like losers, reenacting Admundsen's epic journey in an attic. Written before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the play centers around one Slupianek, who's desperate to release them from their round of pinball, schnaaps, and trips to the unemployment office. This pivotal role is played by versatile Jason Beals, last seen playing Prospero in 11:11's under-rehearsed "Tempest."
This born-leader with nowhere to go has also canoodling with the wife of his friend Braukmann, played by George Saulnier III, the only one of the group to have a job, albeit an unsatisfactory one. La Braukman is done by Janelle Mills with admirable energy. The Braukmann's are both cooks. The rest of the motley crew includes William McGregor as gruff Buscher, who emigrates at the end of the play, and suicidal Seiffert, played by quirky Bob Musset. The latter is discovered trying to hang himself at the beginning of the play. What happens to him by the end is also up in the air. There's also Frankieboy (Mike Budwey) who thinks he's a dog.
This episodic play is an excellent example of contemporary Continental writing, which blends heightened language, mixed metaphor, and bravura style in an adventurous manner not practiced much in the U.S. It's political stance is essentially anarchic, though by the end there's a whiff of optimism for the Braukmann's who are about to have a child. They at least have slipped into the old ideal of home, hearth, and family.
Director Steve Rotolo, who's also doing a cameo as an obnoxious doctor opposite Ashley Kelly, gives Karge's work a staccato interpretation on an interesting set by Christopher Allison. The attic is defined by slight interior framing held in place by tension wires. The cast when not onstage sits visible in the wings. Matt Breton's lighting is appropriately non-realistic. George O'Connor has provided at techno-style abrasive score. Wendy Nystrom has scoured thrift shops and attics to provide ratty furs and mismatched cold weather gear for the "adventure." All-in-all, this metaphor packed piece is still relevant in our post-Industrial age, without ever mentioning "outsourcing."
Molasses Tank has mastered this style, which is worth the trip over to Charlestown. CWT is only three blocks from the Sullivan Sq. T stop, with street-parking a short ways down the hill. As perhaps the leading fringe theater on the current Boston scene it is hosting some of the more challenging productions in town. Next up will be Lee Blessing's "Two Rooms" directed by Darren Evans for his Theatre on Fire group. This is the group that did Jamie Pachino's "Race" earlier in the season. CWT season will close in June with a visit from internationally-known Mabou Mines doing "Lucia Joyce's Coming Forth", about the death of James Joyce's daughter.