Reviewed by Victor Gluck
Presented by and at the Mint Theater Company in association with the Working Theatre, 311 W. 43 St., NYC, Feb. 22-March 11.
From the evidence of Patrick Suskind's play, "The Double Bass," now being revived at the Mint Theater, and his best selling novel, "Perfume," the German author is fascinated by obsession. The single character in this long one-act play is a musician in the state-supported National Orchestra who is obsessed with his ungainly instrument, his unrequited love for a young and talented mezzo-soprano, and his unappreciated status as a musician.
As the double bassist addresses us in his soundproofed room, his neuroses, self-loathing, and nearly criminal fantasies surface. It is a brilliant portrait of a solitary soul in agony who, having bottled up his inner thoughts for years, spills more than he intended to the sympathetic listener. However, the play is for the select few, as the evening seems long at 100 minutes and the subject matter is esoteric, even while suggesting a larger metaphor about the handicap of going unrecognized. Michael Hofmann's translation is lucid and colloquial but offers little sense of time or place.
Michael W. Connors has the difficult job of keeping us interested in this eccentric and neurotic character for the play's intermissionless 100 minutes, and he succeeds until nearly the end. Under the astute and well-paced direction of Mint Theater's Artistic Director Jonathan Bank, Connors makes the subtle journey from arrogance (as the most essential player in the orchestra) to self-loathing (of his awkward instrument), to his admissions that he is talentless and loves the mezzo-soprano to whom he has never even spoken. When he finally loses his temper, we see the rage that is simmering just below the surface.
The production is greatly aided by Katerina Fiore's black and white setting, which allows for many individual playing areas: the CD player, the easy chair, the window to the outside world, the double bass itself.
Reviews continued on page 56