Lingua franca is a language used to communicate between people not sharing a mother tongue…ostensibly creating a commonality. They all want to learn American—they’re shocked when they hear there’s no such animal. American; America—once apparently believed to be the place to go after expulsion from The Garden of Eden. Once.
In the aftermath of World War II, a motley crew of self-exiled foreigners converge on Florence, Italy and find themselves teaching language at the school, Lingua Franca. Each in his own way is an emotional refugee. Each has rebuilt his own reality out of the rubble.
Steven Flowers (Chris New), is a young, attractive, personable, British drifter, possibly an alter ego for the playwright who taught English at an Italian Berlitz. Newly arrived, he becomes the alcohol in an improvised pudding of diverse history and expectations which eventually goes up in flame.
Is this a knife? Yes, this is a knife. Attenzione. Is this a knife? He asks his students, scrupulously following the lumbering curriculum. From the back of the audience we hear Yes, this is un’naif. (This proscenium to class staging is effectively repeated at intervals). Two days in, he tells the group they’re acting like bambini. Gennero Manetti (Enzo Cilenti), the head of the school, informs him the students have refused to be taught by Steven. He’s summarily fired.
Rescued, pursued, and subsidized by the desperately lonely Peggy (Charlotte Randal), who rewrites her life as a romance novel, Steven is allowed to stay. He’s appreciated by the older, gay, seedily elegant, scholarly Jestin (Ian Gelder), welcomed by Irena, (Anna Carteret), the wise and weary Jewish Russian widow of an Italian and Madge, (Abigail McKern), a practical Australian lesbian with a temper as short as her bangs. Even we are charmed.
When he begins a torrid affair (and I mean torrid—the stage veritably steams!) with Heidi (Natalie Walker), the sex kitten German teacher, things begin to bubble up. Despite being astonished and appalled by her naïve pro-Nazi politics, he indulges himself with increasing indiscretion. The outcome is surprisingly destructive.
Chris New manages to morph Steven from a thoroughly likeable innocent to a man missing his moral compass with complete credibility. He’s charming with the class (the audience), cynical and selfish as the play progresses, and as heated a lover as I’ve ever seen on stage. The man has range!
Charlotte Randal’s Peggy is smart, somewhat devious, capable, and tightly wound. It’s a credit to the actress we understand this, but never get a glimpse of the depth of the young woman’s unbalance as it’s essential to the drama. As Peggy cloaks her needs, Randal cloaks Peggy’s. Well done.
Natalie Walter’s smoldering Heidi is believable and multi-faceted. From her shouting out the window to boys around her phut-phut (scooter) to protestation that Anne Frank was a concoction of the Americans, from fetching obtuse innocence to heady seduction, Walter carries it off with elan.
Anna Carteret is a wonderful, patrician Irena. When she speaks of Stalin, the air in the theater changes. All her words, in fact, have gravitas and palpable history behind them. Abigail McKern’s quirky Madge is plucky, practical and untucked. It’s a well drawn portrait played naturalistically to great effect. Ian Gelder’s sensitive interpretation of the familiar Jestin makes him compelling and poignant rather than cliché. Enzo Cilenti has some of the most predictable dialogue as the handsome, womanizing Gennaro. Despite this he presents a character rather than a cartoon.
Michael Gieleta’s direction is best described by the nuanced performances of his ensemble cast. Each actor has his own way of moving, his own rhythm of speech and recognition, his own carefully developed accent. Both sex and violence are grand.
This is a play filled with drama, peppered by humor, dense with ideas and splendidly produced. An engrossing evening of theater.
Lingua Franca by Peter Nichols
Directed by Michael Gieleta
Finborough Theater and
59E59 St Theaters
59 E 59th Street
www.59e59.org or 212-279-4200
Through November 28
Photos by Ari Mintz, from top:
1. Chris New
2. Enzo Cilenti and Chris New
3. Anna Carteret, Ian Gelder, Chris New, Charlotte Randal, and Abigail McKern
4. Charlotte Randal and Natalie Walker
5. Charlotte Randal and Anna Carteret
