Meeting Chalfant Melts a Hard Heart

For the second time, I went to the Off-Broadway Theatre Row to see What We Want only to find out it was not on the boards this night. No worries, the legendary Kathleen Chalfant is starring in Hard Heart on another one of their stages, so I bought a ticket for that.

Ms. Chalfant is one of the grand dames of the American stage. Tony Kushner wrote the Mormon mother role in Angels in America for her; she was in the original production. However, she is best known for her portrayal of Vivian Bearing in the 1999 production of Wit. As any student who has ever taken Intro to Theatre with me can tell you, this play affected me more than any other. She is a brilliant actor.

The Hard Heart is an antiwar play that was written by Englishman Howard Baker in 1991. This is the first time that this play has been mounted - the world premiere. Hauntingly, an English play that was written as a response to Margaret Thatcher in 1991, translates easily to the a 2007 American stage.

There was a talk-back with some of the cast members (including Chalfant) and Dr. Sandi Cooper a historian from CUNY. Following are some of my thoughts during the production, lines that struck me and notes from the talk-back:

*"Beauty has not certainty, but we have our heads. What is in our head we can rebuild."

*At the TB, we were asked what will we think of 2 weeks from now when we hear Hard Heart? What will resonate with us? I said that I was taken with the naturalistic approach to the piece. I said it was very "Lower Depths," but it included all levels of society.

*Technically is was a crumbling of a society. A huge metal building that opened and closed like a obscure tank. Piles of clothing grew throughout the production to represent the lies lost.

*"All that matters is that we protect the grey muck in the shell."

*The costumes and music were transgenerational. It represented a smorgasbord of historical references from the Greeks to the Cold Ward to Iraq.

*They weakest acting/directorial problem was execution of cut off lines. This is an "acting 101 thang." How had can that be?

*"Don't call me clever. It is a demeaning word to those of us of great thought."

*"When they cannot separate their fate from their reason...this is ecstasy."

*"War is the fallacy that smothers love."

*This is a play that represents a culture pacified by its own success.

*This is definitely an anti-feminist playwright. Both protagonists are women. One lets another make decisions for her that ultimately folds their civilization. The other's hubris causes the destruction.

*I asked Chalfant why she was drawn to this project. She responded, 'When does a woman get to say these lines typically saved for men. Being able to say something about politics, our past and our future is a tremendous opportunity." I love it that one of the greatest feminist of the stage grabbed the opportunity to own the character.

*This play is not prescriptive (and ironically, he wrote it during a time when he thought the world could not get any worse) It seems appropriate that the playwright is part of a company called The Wresting Score...certainly, that's we did during and after this production.

After the talk-back, I waited for Chalfant. She could not have been sweeter. I told her about my experience at her production of Wit in 1998, and that I read in the NY Times that she is going to be featured in Tony Kushner's new play which will have its debut at the Guthrie. She confessed that she learned about that role through the Times article too. We laughed. She took my card and agreed to call me about my collection of conversations...let's hope they all start to call soon.