Photo courtesy of Off the Wall Theatre
Wandering through any art museum, one inevitably views rows of masterworks wholly out of context. The casual gaze provides little insight into what the artist and the work are really about. The information on the accompanying text cards offer barely more than fragments—the artist’s name, a title and acquisition date.
Sadly, few of us possess enough knowledge to fill in the blanks and fully comprehend the intersection of politics, religion, philosophy, sexuality and intrigue behind any given work. Off the Wall Theatre’s newest play, The Glance, directed by Dale Gutzman, promises audiences the rest of the story.
In this case, it is a matter of sin, salvation, a plague, the Protestant Reformation, a perverse cardinal and the volatile artist Caravaggio; an existential drama opposing art and the law ensues. I should add that Caravaggio was a gay artist and one whose genius catapulted art out of the staid and mystical Renaissance and into the dramatic and humanist Baroque. Born in 1571, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio inspired Baroque artists all over Europe, including the great masters Rubens and Rembrandt. The Milwaukee Art Musum’s collection includes Caravaggisti Flemish artist Jacques de l’Ange’s Gluttony and Gerrit van Honthorst of Utrecht’s Mars, whose works, replete with striking lighting effects by candle and torch light, are exemplary of the realism and drama that engage the viewer as a participant.
Half a Decade’s Work
Gutzman had The Glance in the works for nearly half a decade. “I have no idea how I got into the project. I was reading about Da Vinci and those influenced by him, and I suddenly found myself becoming obsessed with Caravaggio. I went to Rome to see all the Caravaggios there,” Gutzman says.
Gutzman takes the artist’s personality and proclivities as a vehicle for his play. It’s a gay story. But, unlike most stage works with LGBTQ characters, the subjects just happen to be gay. The human motives and emotions are universal, as are their manifestations. “The play is about the artist who can’t be controlled and how people need to see things their way. Everyone lives by having their own truth even if it’s made up. As a story, this play is as the movie Amadeus is to Mozart—namely, a condensed and distilled narrative of the artist’s life,” Gutzman explains.
With scholarly studies providing theories about Caravaggio’s persona, together with certain well-documented historical facts, Gutzman found ample material on which to base his play. That the artist was on the run for years evading a death sentence for killing a man in a duel (apparently accidently, as he only intended to castrate his rival) should offer a hint about the rich trove at Gutzman’s disposal. Of course, as the most popular painter of his time, even while on the lam, Caravaggio received commissions from cardinals and other high-ranking personalities. However, his propensities for imposing his own vision often led to artistic differences with his clients. The impish pageboy holding a helmet and glancing at the viewer in a portrait of a Grand Master of the Knights of Malta who holds a rod with both hands seems to be open to interpretation. One theory claims Caravaggio’s death in 1610 came as a result.
The creative combination of Caravaggio and Gutzman certainly sounds like an idiosyncratic marriage made in heaven… or somewhere.
The Glance opens Feb 26 at Off the Wall Theatre. For more information, visit offthewallmke.com.
