Vonnegut Work Brought To The Stage

By Jean Passanante
POSTED MARCH 1, 2008

Back in 1963, when Kurt Vonnegut wrote his caustic, terrifying and hilarious science fiction novel “Cat’s Cradle,” the cold war raged and the Cuban Missile Crisis had just brought the United States to the brink of nuclear war. Some trusted our government to protect us—that the finger might have been poised on the button that controls the H-bomb, but would never actually press it. Reason would prevail. But Vonnegut, a prisoner of war during the immolation of Dresden by the Allies in World War II, knew better. He saw in human beings and their institutions an almost gleeful capacity for self-destruction. Reason, his writing suggests, would not prevail. Reason would take a hike.

“Cat’s Cradle,” with its fierce lampooning of the arms race, “pure” scientific research, nationalism, and organized religion, to name a few of its targets, would become part of the ’60s and ’70s zeitgeist, along with such satiric morality tales as “Dr. Strangelove” and “Catch-22.” The new musical stage adaptation of “Cat’s Cradle,” presented by Untitled Theater Company #61, hews closely to the Vonnegut text and is a faithful, inventive, and intelligent rendering of Vonnegut’s cult classic. 

As in the novel, the play’s events are narrated by John (Timothy McCown), a writer preparing a book prophetically entitled “The Day the World Ended,” about the late Felix Hoenikker, a brilliant physicist largely responsible for the development of the atomic bomb. As he begins his research, another physicist, Dr. Breed (Daryl Brown), acquaints John with a theory of Hoenikker’s concerning “Ice-nine,” water frozen at room temperature which, if mishandled, could result in global catastrophe. Intrigued, John follows a hunch that fragments of the lethal substance are possessed by Hoenikker’s children: the self-sacrificing Angela (Rosalynd Darling), the haunted “midget” Newt (Sean Allison), and finally the shady—and presumed dead—Franklin (Barry Weil).  

John’s pursuit leads him to the fictional Caribbean island of San Lorenzo, ruled by two opposing forces: the despot Papa Monzano (Darius Stone), and Bokonon (Horace V. Rogers), founder of a religion he named after himself. 

Bokononism, a theology invented by Vonnegut for “Cat’s Cradle” long before Scientology (the brainchild of another science fiction writer) became a household word, is forbidden on San Lorenzo, its observance punishable by impalement on a giant hook. Bokononism is cheerfully and openly founded on a system of “shameless lies,” or foma: comforting, but powerless in protecting John—or the rest of the human race—from the consequences of “the stupidity and viciousness of all mankind.” 

Edward Einhorn, who is both adaptor and director of this production as well as the company’s artistic director, wisely chose to contain Vonnegut’s sprawling, rambunctious tale by framing it as a “passion play” presented by the members of the Church of Bokononism. The play features “calypsos,” or Bokononist prayers sung by the multi-talented cast and, set to music by Henry Akona, with lyrics mostly by Vonnegut himself.

The production makes creative use of a model set projected onto the back wall of the “church” to suggest various locations. But though energetic, well-paced and humorous, the production falls just short of capturing the searing comic tone of Vonnegut’s novel, and at times it suffers from visual focus.

Standout performances include McCown as John, a rationalist pulled into an increasingly irrational world, and the engaging and vocally accomplished Rogers as the charismatic Bokonon. Also notable are John Blaylock and Jenny McClintock as the ill-fated Ambassador and Mrs. Minton, Jerome Brooks as a feisty bellhop, and Sandy York as Hazel Minton, an extroverted Midwesterner whose hilarious obsession with “Hoosiers” is inexplicable even to herself.

Untitled Theater Company #61 bills itself as a “theater of ideas: scientific, political, philosophical, and above all theatrical.” The apocalyptic fever-dream that is “Cat’s Cradle” is no exception. 

“Cat’s Cradle” runs through 3/15 at Walkerspace, 46 Walker St. Tickets available at  www.theatermania.com.

[Home][Back][Search] [Advertise][Contact]
The Tribeca Trib · 401 Broadway, 5th Floor · New York, NY · 10013 · 212.219.9709