Review: SPAIN at Profile Theatre

In 1936, during the Spanish Civil War, Soviet operatives financed an anti-fascist propaganda film called The Spanish Earth. Its director, Dutch filmmaker Joris Ivens, knew he was working for Moscow. Its writers, John Dos Passos and Ernest Hemingway, did not. Jen Silverman’s SPAIN, which has been updated and reworked for this production at Profile Theatre, uses this history to explore the meaning of art on a societal level. Can it change hearts, minds, or even votes?

In the play, Joris (Benjamin Tissell) and his assigned girlfriend, fellow filmmaker Helen (Cycerli Ash), make films for the KGB from their New York apartment. Their handler, Karl (Adrian Rosales), an opera-loving KGB officer, tasks them with making a feature-length film about the Spanish Civil War with the goal of influencing Americans to send money in support of the communists. The problem is that Joris and Helen have never been to Spain. Their knowledge of the country is limited to things out of a tourist guidebook – tapas, sangria, bulls. So they recruit friends / rivals John Dos Passos, aka Dos (Brian Trybom), and Ernest Hemingway (Jason McBeth) as writers.

This production is a huge undertaking. Silverman’s script wrestles with whether art matters on a large scale. Could the right movie, play, opera, or painting send people into the streets in defense of democracy? Can propaganda also be art? Can a false story produce something true? The ambition of the ideas is matched by the demands of the production, directed by Josh Hecht. Staged in partnership with Portland Opera, the chamber music collective 45th Parallel Universe, and (at some performances) the Metropolitan Youth Symphony, it weaves original recorded and live music together with opera performance. The technical aspects are also ambitious, such as Daniel Meeker’s set, which is far more complex than it first appears.

Beyond the big ideas, the play is also effective on a human scale. Tissell is well cast as Joris, who’s less interested in ideology than just making movies. He wonders if propaganda leaves any room for genuine artistic expression, and whether there was ever real love between him and Helen. Ash perfectly captures Helen’s fear of living under constant surveillance and her growing doubts about the project. Trybom brings conviction to the principled Dos, while McBeth is fantastic as Hemingway, giving us the legend with all of his alpha-male swagger and also the deeply emotional human being. Each character gets a monologue, and McBeth’s about seeing the world through someone else’s eyes, is a highlight of the evening.

It all builds toward an opera scene, performed by Rosales, with original music by Daniel Kluger and gorgeous projection design by Alan Cline. This scene, emotionally resonant and visually stunning, is the strongest evidence in favor of the idea that art can indeed change us.

Ultimately, SPAIN is a play about the power of telling stories and about the gap between how things are and how we come to see them once something, such as a camera angle, has shaped our view. The question is what we do once the lights come up.

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