BackStage sounds the still-resonant call of 'Lefty'

Chicago Tribune

Recent headlines noted that the income gap between the wealthiest one percent of Americans and the rest of us working stiffs is now at its greatest divide since World War II. A depressing fact, to be sure, but one that handily makes the case for reviving Clifford Odets' labor classic "Waiting for Lefty." Even without these troubling stats in the atmosphere, BackStage Theatre Company's muscular and heartfelt revival makes a welcome addition to the current season.

For theater geeks and populists alike, the Group Theatre's inaugural performance of "Lefty" has attained a legendary glow -- it's nearly impossible to sit through it now without thinking of the 1935 opening-night audience pounding their feet and chanting along with the cast "Strike! Strike! Strike!" with such ferocity that some feared the balcony would collapse. ("It was the birth cry of the Thirties," said Group co-founder Harold Clurman in his memoir, "The Fervent Years.")

In a 45-minute series of tightly constructed and emotionally rich scenes, Jason Kae's mostly young cast hits every note with passionate intensity.

And it's not just the plight of the taxi drivers pondering a strike that's at stake here. A scene between an elderly doctor and the young Jewish intern he's dismissing resonates not because of the anti-Semitism on display, but because the still-relevant point about for-profit medical care means "doctors don't run medicine in this country."

A married couple, Edna and Joe (played with painful truthfulness by Rebekah Ward-Hays and Andy Baldeschwiler) realize that their financial plight may spell the end of their partnership. A struggling hack driver (Rob Fagin) breaks up with his girl (Brenda Barrie) because he knows he can't support her and his family on his pitiful wages. "'Maybe later' never comes for me," the girl says sorrowfully, a moment that captures with heartbreaking precision the emotional costs of financial privations. Kae's cast gets the period vernacular down perfectly and the actor/agitators sprinkled through the Viaduct studio keep us all on our toes -- reminding us that this is no museum piece, but a vital portrait of the ongoing struggle for economic justice. As Edna reminds Joe, "The world is supposed to be for all of us."

For a few moments during this intelligent and gutsy little show, we believe it's possible that could be true -- one day.