Hellish new comedy comes to SCR

Tom Titus

Ah, those 17th century Puritans. What a bunch of jokers. A real

bundle of laughs.

Well, not the real ones, of course -- not the sort Arthur Miller

wrote about in “The Crucible.” But the ones playwright Amy Freed is

concerned with in her latest epic, “Safe in Hell” -- that’s an

altogether different breed of pilgrim South Coast Repertory is giving

Freed her third world premiere (following “Freedomland” and “The

Beard of Avon”) and this one’s a satirical jab at the 1691 Mathers,

young preacher Cotton and his imposing fellow cleric father,

Increase. And it’s safe to say that Freed depicts the Salem witch

trials from a decidedly different vantage point than Miller did a

half century ago, though she bases the characters of Cotton and

Increase Mather on historically documented positions both men

assumed.

“Safe in Hell” doesn’t really focus on the trials any more than it

focuses on anything else in director David Emmes’ intellectually

rib-tickling production. Freed scatters her shot to administer

grazing wounds to the early colonists’ treatment of the Indians, and

vice versa, as well as the Puritan ethic and matters of the flesh,

with some contemporary references thrown in (Martha Stewart always is

an irresistible target) to spice up the mixture. It’s a lot to digest

in a few hours.

Freed’s dialogue shifts from the provincial to the contemporary at

the blink of an eye as characters offer observations like “whatever”

in the midst of an old English diatribe or one actor dismissing

another with the phrase, “You are the weakest link. Goodbye.” The

comedy is mostly of the subtle variety, but it draws a good deal of

satiric blood.

The Mathers, however, are the centerpieces and, as interpreted by

Graeme Malcolm (Increase) and Robert Sella (Cotton), both making

their SCR debuts, they’re a fairly typical representation of a

powerful father who doesn’t think his somewhat vacant son is ready

for prime time -- or, in this case, the big pulpit.

Malcolm is particularly earthshaking as the paternal figure,

filled with love but hardly admiration for his son’s attempts to fill

his shoes. Yet when the elder Mather falls ill, he has no choice but

to send a green young Cotton off to preside over the Salem situation.

Sella comes into his own at this point after projecting little

more than doltishness through most of the play. When the pair is

thrust together, Freed’s script crackles with ecclesiastical life,

but there’s a third cleric who nearly steals the show in Simon

Billig’s the Rev. George Doakes, an impressionable clergyman who

strives to better understand the native American population and ends

up going native.

Freed has based the fictional Doakes character on two real

figures, one of whom (the Rev. Samuel Parris) is a major character in

“The Crucible.” Thrusting him and his contrary religious views into

this nest of hidebound Puritans is a masterstroke, and Billig plays

his off-center character to the hilt.

Sharply defined supporting performances are rendered by Colette

Kilroy as Doakes’ overburdened wife, Hal Landon Jr. as “Indian

Roger,” a goofball savage, Don Took as a hard-nosed jurist and -- in

particular -- Tracey A. Leigh as a sharp-tongued slave girl called

Tituba, the same name Miller gave to a similar figure in “The

Crucible.”

Madison Dunaway and Elisa Richardson have some wild and wacky

moments as teenage girls feigning “possession” much as Miller’s

characters did. And Suzanne Jamieson impresses as an intellectually

challenged youngster.

Ralph Funicello’s ever-transforming scenic design provides an

excellent backdrop and Nephelie Andonyadis has designed some

eye-catching costumes (even for this period), with Billig’s final

outfit taking the comic cake.

“Safe in Hell” may require more than one viewing to fully

comprehend the comedy, and the irony, of Freed’s all-encompassing

script. It provides much food for thought along with the

knee-slapping humor at its South Coast Repertory birthplace.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His reviews

appear Fridays.