The Germans in Paris: History is Impersonal

By: Duncan Pflaster Jan. 09, 2007

In the late 1840s, Karl Marx, Richard Wagner, and Heinrich Heine were all, apparently, chums; young men in the prime of their lives, Germans living in Paris, supporting each other's work and helping each other out. From this convenient collision of revolutionary artists and artistic revolutionaries, Jonathan Leaf spins his play The Germans in Paris into a thought-provoking piece of theatre.

We first meet Marx and Heine as Marx is about to be arrested for publishing a radical magazine. Some of his papers have been stolen, and he fears there is an informer in their group of radicals. The rest of the play is mostly concerned with Heine's attempt to pull strings with his mistress's sister's husband to get Marx released. While trying to save Marx from deportation, he begins to question the man's socialist theories and his own dedication to them. Meanwhile, a callow and brash Wagner is trying to get people to acknowledge his genius and get his operas produced in Paris, meeting bemused resistance all the way.

The play is full of peppy bon mots, which brought hearty chuckles from the audience. Most of these come from Heine, who, while terribly witty (as is appropriate for a writer), at times seems just a hair too glib to be the emotional focus of the play, especially when dealing with the weightier issues in Act II.

The cast is smooth and delightful, though not all of them are completely up to the challenge of the playwright's elevated language. As Heine, Jon Krupp gives an understated and intellectual performance, never treading into soppy emotion. Ross Beschler is a delightfully scruffy idealistic puppy-dog as Marx. Brian Wallace is hilarious and steals every scene he's in as the pompous and unsophisticated (and anti-Semitic) Wagner. The women are given less to do, but are still scintillating onstage. Angelica Torn is affecting as Heine's mistress, Claire Winters is full of saucy intrigue as her sister, and Kathryn Elisabeth Lawson is harsh and loving by turns as Heine's short-suffering wife. The supporting cast is accomplished as well, especially the humorously mellifluous Bruce Barton in various roles.

The set is simple and beautiful, though the set changes tended to drag the energy out of the play- it could have been the music (Operatic arias, presumably Wagner), which was beautiful but languorous.

The Germans in Paris is an enjoyable romp through a momentous period of history with some serious ideas slipped in under the radar.

Photo by Oncu Arslan - Jon Krupp and Angelica Torn

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