Fifty years ago Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean costarred in "Giant," giving performances that mesmerized the country when the film was released. It was a colossal cast for an oversized movie based on Edna Ferber's novel of the same name. This month Book-It Repertory Theatre presents the world première of "Giant" as a stage production.
"Giant" is an enormous novel with larger-than-life characters, set in the vast state of Texas and mainly on the two-and-a-half-million acres of it that makes up Riata ranch. Part love story, part history lesson, part socio-political commentary, it follows two generations of the Benedict family as they struggle to come to terms with contradictory views of the world.
Bick Benedict, the oversized Texas cattle baron, is married to beautiful and intelligent Leslie, daughter of Virginia gentry. It's Eastern intellectual establishment come face-to-face with Texas arrogance and money. Sounds like it might have something of interest to say to contemporary America, doesn't it?
Book-It's co-director Myra Platt, who adapted and directed the play, thinks so. For her, Ferber captures the enormity of the feat of the pioneers who conquered this vast land and gained control of its resources. At the same time, Ferber's book shows all the immoderation of Texas.
When the novel came out in the 1950s, it was pulled off the shelves of many Texas libraries, viewed as an egregious stain on the honor of the state. That ban has long been lifted, and recently Laura Bush lauded the book and its author along with the works of Laura Ingalls Wilder and Willa Cather, other women writers who give insight into the history of the West.
For Platt, one of the great strengths of Ferber - a member-in-good-standing of the legendary Algonquin Round Table who also wrote "Cimarron" and "So Big" - is her ability to show how prejudices limit the perceptions of almost everyone. We all approach situations with certain preconceived notions and often can never get beyond them. Ferber exposes the staggering excess and sense of entitlement of the wealthy Texans, their disregard for the Mexicans whose land they usurped and their worship of money.
Her heroine, Leslie Benedict, has to learn to see beyond that and recognize also the Texans' hard work, their loyalty, their ability to get things done. She has to merge her Eastern ideas with the realities and concepts that rule her husband's life.
This ideological clash is at the center of the novel and the play. Leslie and Bick have to compromise, and out of that give-and-take comes something better for all. The next generation of the Benedict family, weaned on the concepts of both their parents, becomes their greatest success.
"Giant" opens on April 8 at Seattle Rep's Leo K Stage. Park your six-shooters and 10-gallon hats at the door and welcome to the United States of Texas.[[In-content Ad]]
