I see where Arthur Miller’s Incident at Vichy is being revived off Broadway next year, produced by and starring Alex Winter of Bill and Ted fame. An article in Deadline states that the show will feature actors of various races and genders and “strip away the lavish, realistic set and period costumes” of past productions. It quotes the production company Small Boat Productions as saying, “This is not a play about one moment trapped in time; rather, it is a play about an ongoing catastrophe of indifference and inaction in the face of atrocity,” a theme it contends is being played out in “Ukraine, Lebanon, Gaza, Iran, and Minneapolis.”

In fact, the play is clearly about a moment in time: it is explicitly about the Vichy government hunting down Jews and other undesirables on behalf of the Nazis. A number of men who have been rounded up on the streets for no given reason are waiting in a room for racial inspection. That includes checks for circumcision, which is going to make this multi-gender casting interesting. It takes place on a single set – I’m not sure what they mean by lavish – and the “period costumes” are simply normal clothing.

The play gets its universality from its specificity. Most in the room are clinging to the illusion that they will be spared since they are innocent of crimes – not realizing, or willing to realize, that their crime in Nazi Europe is being who they are. Yes, that theme is eminently applicable to crises elsewhere, though the mention of Minneapolis is telling — are they seriously comparing that to Vichy France? The switching of race and gender will be nice and ever-so-trendy, but it will dilute the reality of what’s being portrayed. It shows a lack of trust or understanding in the material.

I would have thought Winter would have learned from the stark austerity of his previous New York appearance, last year’s Waiting for Godot. Samuel Beckett’s estate evidently has more integrity in its oversight of its productions.

The last Vichy production I saw was over a pub in London, directed by Phil Willmott in a beautifully stripped-down version with nothing but a single bench against a sheer white wall. Willmott let the text speak for itself, a highly effective approach. My review of that is below. I’m delighted that this unfairly overlooked piece is getting a new staging, but I hope they keep in mind what makes it such a searing piece of theater. Continue reading →