Photo Courtesy of Off the Wall Theatre
Do you know Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio? Seen from the 21st century, the Renaissance painter’s works are strikingly beautiful, with deep shadows engulfing religious figures with realistic traits and gorgeous colors; but it is the tumultuous personality of the artist and his creation process that Off the Wall Theatre focuses on in their new play, The Glance. Written and directed by Dale Gutzman, The Glance is a fully original script born from five years of research, including a trip to Rome to study authentic Caravaggio masterpieces. The result is nothing short of fascinating.
Caravaggio didn’t have a simple life. He was presumably gay, violent, wild, red-blooded, and he even killed a man, leading to a death sentence. He was only spared—until he died in mysterious circumstances at the age of 38—due to the protection of the Roman Catholic Church, which saw the genius in his art. But, while the church demanded decorum in art, hiding genitals and painting idealized religious figures, Caravaggio refused to comply. His art was rough, realistic and homoerotic, using normal people and prostitutes as models for saints or Jesus. As he summarizes himself in The Crave, the church hated him because his Virgin Mary had dirty feet.
The play takes place entirely in the artist’s studio in Milan, Italy, where he is visited by his brother, Giovanni (Nathan Danzer), and members of the church; in particular, the antagonistic Father D’Angelo (Randall T. Anderson) and Archbishop Borromeo (Michael Pocaro), Caravaggio’s patron. Others—like the bodyguard, Marco (Teddi Gardener); a female lover (Abby Fuchs); a monk (Mark Ninneman); and the Countess Colonna (Amber Regan), an unlikely ally—complete the cast. Most of these characters are fictional or never interacted with Caravaggio, but they are here used to construct a tight and compelling narrative surrounding the creation of the master’s Youth with a Ram.
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As Caravaggio, himself, Max Williamson is brilliant at expressing the torment of an artist who cannot create what is demanded of him. The acting is one of the play’s greatest strengths; everything from Pocaro’s descent into feverish madness to Danzer’s promiscuous friendliness helps to plunge the audience into a messy art studio in the late 1500s. The high point of the play is Amber Regan’s head-on confrontation with Borromeo, when masks fall and thrills peak. The actors can give such a range of performances, thanks to the script’s chiseled dialogues, which are filled with witty quips, and the efficient character development.
At its core, The Glance is a love letter to free spirits who appreciate the impurity of our world, and it denounces the masks that one wears—or, in the case of the Roman Catholic Church, forces others to wear—to give oneself an illusion of perfection. While every character in the show dabbles in sin, in particular lust, the church condemns Caravaggio’s erotic paintings while hypocritically coercing boys into sex. The church’s evil deeds pour out of the fracture between its members’ real selves, concealed in shame, and the appearances they will do anything to protect. This message, conveyed through half-naked actors bathed in a warm glow, is a feast for the mind as well as the eyes.
Through March 8 at Off the Wall Theatre, 127 E. Wells St.
