Isabel Allende's "The House of the Spirits" provides a panoramic sweep of about 100 years of Chilean history experienced by members of a sprawling and somewhat odd family. Adapting it for the stage offers monumental challenges, and Book-It's current production doesn't overcome all of them.
First published in 1982, the novel was lauded internationally and became a runaway bestseller. It was released just nine years after the president of Chile, Allende's godfather and relative, was assassinated during an army coup supported by the United States government. When Pinochet seized dictatorial power, Isabel Allende went into exile. She couldn't safely return to her country when her beloved grandfather was dying, yet she wanted to provide for him a sense of her love and the family history. The intimate memoir opened a floodgate of memories. These were expanded and recast to become the popular novel set in an unnamed South American country.
The story concerns the family of Esteban Trueba, a man of hearty appetites and unswerving belief in the correctness of all he does, whether it's raping his peasants or holding fast to the conservative political views that helped lay the groundwork for a military coup. He's a man of wealth, a patron with vast land holdings and many peasants. He eventually becomes a senator and an important figure in the government. He rules family and ranch with firmness, often tinged with cruelty. Yet he is capable of great love, and among those he adores are his wife Clara and his granddaughter Alba.
Clara has supernatural powers. She can foretell the future and cause immobile objects to elevate and move through space. She hangs out with mystics, and when she sets her mind to it she can stop talking - for years at a time. She is the personification of the magical realism that is associated with much South American literature.
Granddaughter Alba, like Allende herself, adores her grandfather. She does this despite the fact that she is poles apart from him politically. Even as a child Alba can't understand how he can own so much and his peasants can own so little. Her grandfather dismisses such foolishness. Yet, in college she supports socialist causes. And when the coup takes place, she is among those who are hauled in by the thugs of the new regime to be raped and tortured. She is saved from being one of the "disappeared" only because of her grandfather's influence ... with a prostitute rather than a government official.
This plot condensation is laughably incomplete. There are more than 25 characters in this production, and they represent a fraction of those in the novel. There's not space in this review adequately to summarize the novel. Unfortunately there wasn't sufficient time or space to capture it well on stage. Consequently the production is spotty. It jumps from incident to incident, trying to cram too much into an evening that eventually seems interminable. The set, though framed with a subtle beauty, is meant to capture the mystical, magical elements, but doesn't quite succeed.
But, listen up - I am not recommending that you stay away. This is an ambitious undertaking. It doesn't succeed on all levels, but there are some very good elements. The story is so compelling you can't help but be caught up in it, and it's fascinating just to see how the production attempts to capture the important intersection of the magical and the real.
It provides much to think about. For instance, what is the relationship between personal acts and national policies? The fascism of the regime that orchestrates the coup has much in common with the tyrannical manner in which Trueba treated his peasants. Trueba is horrified by the army take over that he and the Senate can't control. He rails against the dissolution of the elected government. He can't believe the acts of barbarism. Yet never does he think back on his own life. He is proud of the fact that as patrón he provided brick houses for his peasants. He can't see that, though he bettered their lives, he took away their dignity. So, too, the regime creates clean streets and fills the grocery stores with needed foodstuffs, but at what cost to personal liberty?
Through the skill of Todd Licea, who plays Esteban Trueba, we watch an insecure, even gentle man come into his power and be corrupted by it. We see his tenderness with Clara in contrast to his violence with the peasants. We see him at the height of his authority, and we watch as age and circumstance reduce him. It's a demanding part, and Licea masters it well.
The novel and the production also bristle with issues related to women and their place in society. Clara's mother is a spokesperson for women's rights and tries to initiate change. Clara does good works but, unlike her mother and granddaughter, doesn't fight for equality. She achieves her power more by the traditional informal means used by women throughout the world, though she adds a little magic to them. Rich women can make progress; meanwhile the peasant women are chattel. Thus we are asked to consider questions of class as well as gender.
I wish that Myra Platt, who adapted and directed the play, had narrowed her focus and provided richer coverage of fewer incidents and people. She set an awesome task for herself in attempting to transfer this colossal novel to the stage. Not a perfect job, but an interesting night at the theater despite that.
'THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS'
Book-It Repertory Theatre; playing at Seattle Repertory's Leo K Theatre in Seattle Center
Wednesday-Sunday through June 24
Tickets: $15-$40, 216-0833 or www.book-it.org[[In-content Ad]]
