Review: THE RADICALIZATION OF ROLFE at Safehouse Arts

Andrew Bergh’s The Radicalization of Rolfe, winner of a 2016 FringeNYC Overall Excellence Award, might have had its germination by observing the naïve American white males joining the MAGA movement of our current president. Young, impressionable males willing to forsake reason and civility for demagoguery and authoritarianism. Or, quite possibly, Bergh is a Sound of Music fan, which figures prominently throughout this re-imaging of the story of Rolf (with an added e), the messenger boy and future Nazi from the musical.

Hopefully, it’s both, and oh yes, Rolfe (Simon Winheld) is gay, an added twist on the ridiculousness of radicalizing him the Nazi cause. His love scenes with lover Johan (Tyler Iiams) are wrought with the tension of Rolfe’s self-loathing combined with his true gayness conflicted with his desire to ‘be someone’ – that someone being a successful, powerful Nazi. He wants to stop the relationship but keeps coming back. Johan is the voice of reason here, clearly understanding the ramifications of national socialism and its ideals – rooting out deviants being a major component.

We meet Herr Zeller (John Hurst), the Nazi commandant grooming Rolfe to spy on the Von Trapp family through his courtship with Liesl, the eldest daughter from the musical. He’s not a clownish character, rather a pragmatist deluded by the cause to corrupt ‘malleable’ youths to commit horrific crimes against mankind. Martin Grimes plays Franz, the Von Trapp’s butler and aspiring Nazi  who’s bumbling ineffectiveness irks Herr Zeller immensely. And poor Frau Schmidt (J.J. Van Name), the von Trapp’s housekeeper caught between protecting the family and saving her nephew Johan from being outed as both a communist and fag.

The actors all give their best in ratcheting up the expected tensions – the innocents versus the growing power of evil. But that tension is often broken by silly references to the musical (when asked his age, Rolfe says “Seventeen going on eighteen.”). There’s plenty of Sound of Music backstory provided in almost every scene as Herr Zeller pries information on Captain Von Trapp. The play splits its time between the real harrowing story the corruption of youth by playing on their ambition with promises of power and glory, and unnecessary filler about the Von Trapp’s.

Rolfe’s dilemma should be the central focus as a warning to us all about the ease at which people can be manipulated into extremism. The conclusion is sad, yet surprisingly inevitable, a gloomy commentary on the horrors of our times.