Turning back “The American Clock”

“The…“The American Clock” Written by: Arthur Miller Directed by: Robert C.T. Steele Starring: Bjorn Ahlstedt, Aaron Jefferson Tindall, Elena Alexandratos Runs through March 2 Stephen Foster Memorial Tickets: $12 students with Pitt ID, $22 non-students

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The Great Depression, communism and unbridled capitalism: The major forces that sought to wrench America apart in the 1930s intertwine on the Stephen F. Foster Memorial stage for Pitt Repertory Theatre’s production of Arthur Miller’s “The American Clock.”

Countering criticism that Miller creates a preachy parody of American life, director Robert C.T. Steele brings new life to Miller’s work. The depression-era story of loss and uncertainty rings especially true today: Our own economic dregs lie in the bottom of Miller’s cup.

Both now and in the ’30s, fear displaced optimistic visions of the future. While nothing compares to the great economic downturn of Black Tuesday, 1929, the crisis doesn’t seem so distant as the word “recession” appears on our televisions and in our newspapers.

“The American Clock” is a vaudeville performance based on Studs Terkel’s “Hard Times.” Set in the 1930s, it focuses on the government failure to respond to the needs of its people. We meet the Baum family and explore the collapse of the American financial infrastructure and the social devastation it leaves in its wake.

Lee Baum, played by Bjorn Ahlstedt, narrates the events of his family and of the world around him. Lee introduces us to his mother, Rose Baum (Elena Alexandratos), who is contradictory in every way – fascinated by money and its influence yet angry at its power over her.

Jointly narrating with Lee is the foresighted Arthur A. Robertson (Dangerfield Graham Moore), who catches wind of the impending financial storm and quietly leaves the market system.

With a voice and smile that bring you back to an age of swing and swagger, there’s something deeper to Mr. Robertson, a man who watches “a sea of cardboard-box homes” with stoicism and walks daily among needy men and women.

The scenes flick through these characters and others in the American depression landscape, using song and sometimes dance to segue into new ideas and emotions. Even the occasional discordant bar doesn’t detract much from the show’s musical transitions.

Throughout the play, characters remain on stage, watching and waiting for something to happen, as if they want some sort of sign that change will come. They wait and wait, never losing their hope that the world will one day right itself.

The director’s choice to make the cast also an audience is intriguing. It makes it seem as if we, the true audience, are spectators from the future, who must understand the depression and take back those lessons for our time.

Miller clearly has a political message tied to “The American Clock”: Join together, fight for social justice and demand a more equitable society. The play’s tone, though, comes off as preachy and overdone. Subtlety is ignored as characters directly berate the audience about corporate greed and the loss of individuality to “The Man.”

Yet in an era of Enron and Worldcom, maybe that message needs to be broadcast as clearly as Miller writes it and as Pitt Repertory Theater performs it. “The American Clock” will help audience members place today’s uncertainties in historical context, and in so doing, it hopefully will give perspective to today’s economic and social ills.