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Laurey (Willow Geer) and Curly (Jeff Wiesen) in Green Grow the Lilacs. |
By Ed Rampell
This seems to be the stage and screen summer of “Oklahoma” -- and all of these productions set in what had been called “Indian Territory” have Native-American connections. The recent LA Film Festival screened Sterlin Harjo’s had-hitting indigenous indie about the homeless, Natives in Tulsa. Les Blank’s just-released documentary about Leon Russell, A Poem is a Naked Person, was shot in the 1970s and includes traditionally garbed Natives performing. Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum is presenting Tracey Letts’ August: Osage County.
As part of its current repertory season the Theatricum Botanicum is also presenting the part-Cherokee playwright Lynn Riggs’ 1931 classic, Green Grow the Lilacs, wherein two of the townsfolk identify themselves as being one quarter Native. In any case, Green Grow the Lilacs inspired the fabled Rodgers and Hammerstein, who adapted Riggs’ drama into a full-blown 1943 Broadway musical extravaganza, with Fred Zinnemann directing Hollywood’s 1955 version of Oklahoma!, where “the corn is as high as an elephant’s eye.” (A production of the musical opens July 17 at Cabrillo Theatre in Thousand Oaks.)
The plot of Oklahoma! is similar to that of Green Grow the Lilacs, which incorporates folksy songs into the play, performed and sung by Curly (Jeff Wiesen), Aunt Eller (Melora Marshall) and the ensemble. These standards include numbers such as the title song (from which Riggs presumably derived the name of his play) and "Skip to My Lou" -- the tunes may be cornier than those stalks growing higher than an elephant’s eye, but when theatergoers received their Playbills they were also given separate lyrics sheets and invited to sing along during the choruses. This, of course, enhanced a homey ambiance that served this play about ordinary people well.
Green Grow the Lilacs takes place around the turn of the last century, before Oklahoma joined the Union and was known as Indian Territory or Indian Country, when Riggs was a boy. The simple farm folk and story are drawn from Riggs’ childhood.
The Pulitzer Prize-nominated 1931 production was produced on Broadway by the Theatre Guild, which was, among other things, part of the proletarian theatre movement depicting the common man and woman, presenting works by playwrights such as leftist John Howard Lawson, as well as plays by Eugene O’Neill, bard par excellence of the heartbreaking family drama. Green Grow the Lilacs was directed by Herbert Biberman who, about 30 years later as a blacklisted independent filmmaker, helmed another piece about ordinary people called Salt of the Earth.
Many are familiar with the storyline of Oklahoma!, if not Green Grow the Lilacsper se, so your plot spoiler averse reviewer won’t spoil surprises for those readers who aren’t. But allow this ink stained wretch to render these observations: Sex (and the thwarting of it) is an important part of the plot. Laurey Williams (portrayed with aw shucks aplomb by Willow Geer) spurns the advances of Jeeter (Fry, not Derek), a hired hand ignobly and savagely played by Steven Green. She then proceeds to pursue doing with Curly exactly what Jeeter had wanted to do with Laurey and had caused her such revulsion.
Interestingly enough, it is the repulsive Jeeter, the blue collar-less brute, who has the most class conscious dialogue in Riggs’ folk-poem, aware of the fact that he is looked down upon because he is a manual laborer with dirt under his nails who does not own land, property. As a sort of cowboy, Curly is a rung up the Indian Territory’s social ladder, and along with his better looks, is more appealing to Laurey. So it’s not a case so much of what is being sought as who is seeking it.
Laurey and Curly’s troubled attempts to form their sexual union can be symbolic of the Indian Territory’s transition upon joining the Union in 1907, becoming Oklahoma, the 46th state. The Green in the title may refer to the territorial status of a pre-statehood land not yet fully “mature” as one of the United States per se.
In any case, Riggs’ play is a bit strange and doesn’t necessarily actually have a denouement per se. But this production ambles amiably and dramatically along where appropriate in a folksy way that WGTB founder, mid-Westerner Will Geer, would likely have felt right at home with -- especially as his TV alter ego, Grandpa Walton -- and this Green Grow the Lilacsis quite enjoyable. Some ticket buyers will get a kick out of the sing along portion in particular (follow the bouncing ball!).
Given that this seems to be the summer of the “Okies,” I’d be remiss not to mention the Theatricum’s other Oklahoma connection: That most famous “Okie” of them all, Dustbowl-refugee-turned-people’s-balladeer Woody Guthrie, lived in a cabin on the grounds back in the day when he and Will Geer used their artistry to organize unions, agitating for working people’s rights.
Green Grow the Lilacs runs through Sept. 26 at Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum: 1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga, California, 90290. For repertory schedule and other information call: 310-455-3723 or see: Lilacs.
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