Haunted Houses

Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo and Holy Ghost

Comments (0) By Steven Leigh Morris Thursday, Apr 29 2010

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Moisés Kaufman stages a cast of unwavering strength. Tile mosaics and those topiary creatures punctuate Derek McLane's set, which feels more at home on the comparative openness of the Taper's thrust stage than when it was confined to the proscenium frame of the Douglas. This is one play that should never be in a cage.

The ghosts in Jon Tuttle's Holy Ghost — in a glorious production at Theatre of NOTE, directed by Michael Rothhaar, are the German suicides in an American POW camp in South Carolina, as World War II is ending. Among the issues here is how the Germans are not all Germans: One is Serbian (a heartbreaking and tender performance by Rick Steadman) and a couple are Jews who were swept into the German army and have hidden their identity for all too obvious reasons. Here's another surreal story, but this one is seen through the eyes of a main character, a newcomer to the scene, a U.S. Army officer named Bergen (Dan Wingard), who registered as a noncombatant due to his principles of nonviolence. He also happens to be Jewish, which goes down only a little better in South Carolina than it might in Nazi-occupied Berlin.

PHOTO BY CRAIG SCHWARTZ

Tommy and the Tiger

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And so begins Tuttle's scintillating mash-up and spinning of stereotypes, which form a different but equally vicious brand of comedy from that in Joseph's play. Almost nobody is quite what they seem, or how they've been labeled — and Tuttle drives home that point with irresistible humor.

The German POWs are guarded by African-Americans (who have their own internal seethings), some of whom don't quite understand schwarze, the epithet being hurled at them. As though this is a competition for who is lowest on the totem pole.

Acting as a public-information officer, Bergen tries to stage a play with the non–English-speaking Germans — a play about Abraham Lincoln freeing the slaves. (Irony doesn't come any more blistering than this.) The Serbian with a perfectly executed, excruciatingly inept dialect is cast as Honest Abe. Before the big show, he makes a break for freedom — with fake beard glued on. The only English he knows is the lines from the stupid play, which he uses to bed some hayseed's daughter (Rebecca Sigl) before showing up in a redneck bar, and then chased by the private (Rich PierreLouis) who was supposed to be guarding him. What ensues is a kind of Huckleberry Finn morality play, with everything but the morals.

The ensemble is as terrific as the play, with standout performances by Doug Burch, Carl J. Johnson, and a gloriously patronizing portrayal by Brad C. Light as the German translator (an SS officer in disguise); Light doubles perfectly and metaphorically as the local sheriff.

BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO | BY RAJIV JOSEPH | Presented by CENTER THEATRE GROUP at the MARK TAPER FORUM, 135 N. Grand Ave., dwntwn. | Tues.-Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 2:30 & 8 p.m.; Sun., 1 & 6:30 p.m.; through May 30 | (213) 628-2772

HOLY GHOST | By JON TUTTLE | Presented by THEATRE OF NOTE, 1517 N. Cahuenga Blvd., Hlywd. | Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m.; through May 30 | (323) 856-8611