Striving for the Epic, 'The Hiding Place' Just Might Make It

Last Saturday night, April 10, 2010, Chicago's Provision Theater Company presented the world premiere dramatic adaptation of the book "The Hiding Place," the real-life story of Corrie ten Boom, a Dutchwoman arrested by the Nazis who survived life in a concentration camp. The company's artistic director, Tim Gregory, adapted the script and directs the production, which runs until May 23 at the theater's lovely home in a well-equipped proscenium performance space at Roosevelt Road and Racine Avenue on the near South Side.

The story itself, something of a sensation among evangelical protestants in the decades following World War II, follows the ten Boom family, a middle class and devout Dutch Reformed family in Haarlem, The Netherlands. Involved in the watch-making trade, the family gradually became involved in the underground, anti-Nazi resistance movement in Holland and eventually built a small hidden room in their house (called "the hiding place," of course, though there is a Biblical reference to be had with that phase as well). Guided and sustained by their faith, they sheltered Jews and others in danger after the German invasion of Holland in 1940. 

In 1944 they were betrayed, and many family members and friends were arrested--but the people they were hiding were not discovered by the Gestapo and were rescued by others in the resistance movement. Corrie and her sister Betsie were eventually sent to the Ravensbruck concentration camp near Berlin, Germany, where Betsie died. Corrie spent the rest of her life involved in Holocaust survival and remembrance work, guided by her faith in God and working through in her own mind (as well as others) the ways in which we can forgive those who commit such atrocities toward mankind. She wrote her autobiography in the early 1970s with John and Elizabeth Sherrill, who were present at Saturday's premiere performance. 

The play is a heroic attempt at telling at epic story, to be sure. With a cast of thirty professional actors and a running time of three hours, the first act bears a not-quite-comfortable resemblance to the story of a more famous Dutch Holocaust figure, Anne Frank, author of "Diary of a Young Girl" and the subject of several plays and movies, most notably the award winning "The Diary of Anne Frank" from the 1950s. But, Gregory's script does a good job of showing the step-by-step way in which this law-abiding family chose the path of "doing the right thing" rather than conforming to the law and the path of least resistance. 

The second act of "The Hiding Place" takes place in a jail and the camp itself, and is reminiscent of "Bent, "Sophie's Choice" and many other worthy concentration camp projects. It is violent, shocking and in many ways hard to watch. Young children should definitely not attend this show, in what is probably a departure from Provision's wholesome, faith-friendly (though grown-up) production philosophy. 

As a new play, Gregory's script is frequently a marvel of storytelling, showing a complex sequence of events and its effects on many different people. There is probably some tightening or conflating of scenes that could occur, and maybe combining of a character or two, but, even as big as this concept is, I can very easily see many different types of theater companies (especially faith-based colleges) taking it on in the future. 

However, the inner dramatic tension is not as highly pitched as it could be, in comparison to the exciting action depicted onstage (repeated practice sessions at hiding from the Nazis, repeated roll calls and guard-inflicted violence in the camp, etc.). A non-religious audience may want to know more about the human struggle to reconcile faith in a benevolent and powerful God with the atrocities inflicted on Corrie and her loved ones.  If the real Corrie was a model of trust and strength in this regard, the dramatic Corrie loses a bit of tension in her dogged determination to live out her faith with hardly a thought to step for a moment in the other direction. That quality is inspiring, yes, but it is not as interesting to watch as it might seem in theory. 

As a piece of stagecraft, this world premiere production has much to commend it. Led by three Equity actors, the warm, gracious and articulate Lia Mortensen as Corrie, Cynthia Judge as the spinsterish older sister Betsie and grandfatherly Dennis Kelly as their noble and wise father, Caspar, the entire company (with maybe one or two minor exceptions) deliver passionate and sure performances. Not only are there thirty actors (including three children), but most of then play more than one role. It's theater that you just don't see very often, this side of Shakespeare or "Les Miserables." 

Other standouts include Matt Holzfeind as two very different types of Nazis, Danon Dastugue as a benevolent prison matron and Luke Renn as a conflicted doctor. The actors playing the ten Boom family, their five houseguests, the Nazi soldiers and the female inmates in the work camp all produced lovely ensemble moments of focus, cooperation and individualization Saturday night. That said, I frequently couldn't remember who was who. There are just so many characters! 

The multi-level, rolling scene design by Inseung Park (resident scene designer at Indiana University South Bend) is cleverly effective, though the ten Boom's house was made a little overly rustic in the choice of materials used. Too bad that the second act pace drags a bit due to the repeated revolving of the entire enormous barracks set from back to front and back. Props by Jodi Gage and costumes by Isaac B. Turner go a long way toward showing the time and place and social class of the family, their friends and enemies. Joshua Paul Weckesser's lighting design, assisted by the young Michael Gobel, doesn't achieve transcendence, but works wonders with the needs and resources at hand. 

Lindsay A. Barlett had her hands full as the dialect coach, as the whole three hours (German "schnell"ing aside) is rendered with a slight Dutch accent (I found this convention unnecessary, but a valiant attempt at verisimilitude to those who may have heard the real Corrie speak later in her life). The original scene-change music and a couple of in-character songs by Alaric Jans are effective, and managed by the sound design of Christopher Kriz. And I'm sure that adapter-director Gregory (who as a performer is the host of "New Spaces" on HGTV) was glad to have two assistant directors in Gerald H. Bailey and Chris Conley. The fight choreography by Michael Goldberg was very well done, indeed. 

Many in the opening night audience for "The Hiding Place" were visibly moved by the production, and in its size, number of scenes and characters and in its depiction of the full life cycle of one of the past century's defining events, this show is a worthy addition to the canon of epic modern theater. But I can't shake the nagging feeling that it could be better. Tim Gregory, who no doubt has put several years of his life into this project, probably can see that, now that it is fully realized in front of him. 

If you would like to see something brand new, yet thoroughly familiar in subject matter and realistic theatrical style, you should steady your nerves and go see "The Hiding Place." I can't imagine a new script getting more loving care and depicting more larger-than-life events than this one. The depth of your "take-away" from this production, however, may depend on the depth of your personal convictions about the role of forgiveness and faith, and how you feel about trusting in a God who can see further down the road than we can. It's a tough subject, and yet the answer isn't within the show, it's within the attendant audience. For a theater company whose next shows are the much easier to digest "Godspell" and "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever," this is undoubtedly an ambitious achievement, one that many companies could never hope to approach. Bravo to Provision Theater! 

Provision Theater Company's world premiere of THE HIDING PLACE, runs through May 23 at 1001 W. Roosevelt Road in Chicago.  For tickets call 866.811.4111 or visit www.provisiontheater.org.  

Photos: Lia Mortensen, Cynthia Judge, Franette Liebow and the Cast  

Photo credit: John Gedeon, Jr.

 

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