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The Living Theatre: Up Close And Personal

Judith Malina and Julian Beck may have always been the heart and soul of The Living Theatre – but for the past few decades Hanon Reznikov was its brain and body. Hanon was the reason rehearsals didn’t devolve into philosophical arguments, that philosophical arguments didn’t last for eight hours at communal meetings (though they could last for three or four – the slow pace of progress on the path to enlightenment a main reason why this once impatient nineteen-year-old couldn’t pledge allegiance to The Living Theatre for more than a few years after graduating from NYU’s acting program where I first encountered the dynamic duo of Judith and Hanon). If a problem needed to be fixed, a conflict arose it was Hanon one immediately went to. Anyone who’s ever met Judith knows that her presence fills an entire room then spills out into the adjacent hallway – an awesome Mary mother figure to Hanon’s humble carpenter. Judith was the person to ask if you had questions about how a particular physical movement relates to the painting style of Kandinsky (though you could ask Hanon that, too). Hanon was the person to go to when you needed to know how to end up at stage right. Hanon was there through the daily minutia that goes into putting on a show, tirelessly tilling soil, planting vines until Judith arrived to pronounce the grapes ripe for the picking. Which is why I now raise a glass of fine wine to my theater mentors – but especially to Hanon, the man behind the woman, who carried the material burden for over thirty years so that a Living legend could be free to do her necessary spiritual work in preparation for the next revolution waiting in the wings.

Eureka: A Tribute to Hanon Reznikov

Hanon Reznikov died this past spring before he could complete The Living Theatre’s latest production “Eureka,” based on a prose poem by Edgar Allan Poe. Like Hanon (who studied biophysics at Yale before he found his calling with the troupe) Poe was interested in the synthesis of art and science, penning a work that explores the creation of the universe from Big Bang to end (at a time when most scientists disavowed such visionary thinking). But the tell-tale heart of art carries on, and thanks to Judith Malina who has finished her partner’s work, transformed Poe’s poem into not a play but prose for the stage, Hanon’s legacy continues in a thrilling multimedia production infused with that collective spirit he fell in love with forty years ago.

A little less than half that time ago I performed in the company’s “Waste,” a summer street theater piece that “Eureka” reminded me very much of. Like that environmentally conscious play, “Eureka” deals with nature on a grand scale – too big to contain in an indoor theater. “Eureka” is made for the outdoors, a location like the west side pier (used to great effect for “Waste”) would do justice to the awesome theme of all of us eternally engaged in the process of creation, would allow for a conversation between the stars in the sky and the cosmos seen onscreen on opposite sides of the space (along with images gathered from a video camera, projecting audience and actors onto those same screens in real time).

Nevertheless, a basement theater “Eureka,” created with the same childlike passion as the homemade basement haunted houses I crafted as a kid, is better than none. The enthusiasm of the young ensemble cast is both contagious and inspiring, as the “elements” (actors take their characters’ names from the periodic chart – which likewise is projected onto those screens) flow, “fly” on shoulders and suck the audience into the act of creation, otherwise known as the production. This is The Living Theatre, after all – performance always an active art form, never passive, so the audience must be open to taking the ride mentally, emotionally and physically as well. Audience members are coaxed to move, to think for themselves, to answer questions that the actors pose. The Living Theatre is not about art collectively giving answers, but about listening respectfully to individuals to create collective art.

For The Living Theatre is forever in dialogue with its audience, this religious Talmudic element – made explicit in the tefillin worn by one “element” – a reflection of rabbi’s daughter Judith who’s proven for over half a century that wandering Jews will keep moving – the Living Theatre will go on! The scientific element, an expression of Hanon, offers that bible and science, storytelling and knowledge seeking are connected – not exclusive. Each fills in the gaps the other leaves open. “Eureka” is Judith and Hanon in macrocosm.

None of which would I be able to see were I still performing with the company. As an actor you’re not always aware of the magic you’re creating – you’re too busy doing your job. But as an audience member, the connection (the precise theme of “Eureka”), how we are all one organism, each individual a unique cell necessary to create a bigger being, is made tangible. The “magic” is in that connection, the use of audience members’ hearts, minds and bodies, without which the show cannot function. We are all actors in life, we need each other – and there is no such thing as a small role. And now in the 21st century with the power of the Internet to connect us, this oldest experimental theater group in America is rendered more important than ever in its mission to remind us what true connection is all about