Crevasse, playwright Tom Jacobson’s intriguing if somewhat disjointed imagining of the meeting between German director Leni Riefenstahl and Walt Disney has its world premiere at the Victory Theater in collaboration with Son of Semele, featuring stellar performances by Leo Marks and Ann Noble under inspired direction by Matthew McCray.
In 1938, Riefenstahl, a favorite of Hitler’s, visited Hollywood in an effort to obtain a distribution deal for her documentary Olympia, about the 1938 Olympics. Her timing, which came shortly after the infamous Kristallnacht, was not fortuitous. The Hollywood studios and moguls shut her out, but Disney, who apparently admired her skill as a director, gave her a tour of his studio.
The bulk of the play is devoted to the studio tour, during which Disney gives her a preview of his upcoming projects and animation techniques, while the two conduct a running dialogue on anti-Semitism, Jews in Hollywood, Adolf Hitler and the power of propaganda. The conflict between them is often opaque, hinting at Disney’s latent anti-Semitism and Riefenstahl’s positive qualities. But the conflict is fairly tame and subdued.
Leo Marks as Disney (and several other characters early on) is brilliant in his portrayal of Walt as the aw-shucks American, unwilling to condemn Riefenstahl for her Nazi fervency, but refusing to help her in her quest for a distribution deal. Marks wonderfully portrays the nice-guy but ambitious Disney as the artist who is above politics, but is happy to go whichever way the wind blows. Ann Noble is also terrific as Riefenstahl, both flirty and ruthless, willing to literally anything to advance her career — a narcissist who is convinced that she is a genius who has been brought down by a Jewish conspiracy.
While Jacobson has tackled many important issues in the piece — perhaps too many — he does highlight the many failures of great artists as they wade through the treacherous crevasse between good and evil. He makes clear that very few — certainly not these two — successfully make it across that crevasse.
Crevasse — Playing October 4-27. Tickets at Victory Center Theater