Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Transport Group’s stunningly reimagined THE TRIAL OF THE CATONSVILLE NINE is innovative, powerful

• By drediman
• February 16, 2019
• No Comments

David Huynh, Eunice Wong, and Mia Katigbak in Daniel Berrigan’s “The Trial of the Catonsville Nine”, a co-production by Transport Group and NAATCO, at the Abrons Arts Center. Photo by Carol Rosegg.

This week at the Abrons Arts Center, I caught Transport Group’s revelatory revival of The Trial of the Catonsville Nine by Daniel Berrigan. The production has been given an immersive, boldly heightened staging by Transport Group artistic director Jack Cummings III. Given his knack for deconstructing works we thought we knew and finding new, highly theatrical ways to bring them to life, I’m not surprised. But even given his impressive track record, Mr. Cummings’ work here is particularly fresh and powerful.

The Trial of the Catonsville Nine is docudrama and political theater of the highest order. The piece has been culled from transcripts of the trial of the Catonsville Nine, legends in the world of social justice. If you haven’t heard of them, they were nine brave Catholic activists who in 1968, to protest the Vietnam War, illegally destroyed hundreds of draft files by setting them on fire with napalm. They were each arrested, put on trial, and found guilty. Daniel Berrigan, one of the nine (and a Jesuit priest), subsequently penned this play about each of the nine, which has been rightfully hailed as a passionate, clear-eyed declaration for the necessity for revolutionary activism within our governing systems.

As mentioned, Mr. Cummings’ production is special, especially as enacted by his superb trio of Asian American actors – the revival is co-presented by the National Asian American Theatre Company (“NAATCO”). Each actor interchangeably performs all the roles in Fr. Berrigan’s play as the director has them prowl around a long, cluttered work table strewn with artifacts from the war (Mr. Cummings inventively uses the Abrons’ main Playhouse Theater to stunning effect; no spoilers here). The resulting experience is a profound kind of seance, during which each performer is hauntingly possessed by ghosts of the past. In summary, Transport Group’s reimagined The Trial of the Catonsville Nine manages to be brilliantly innovative yet emotionally stirring in the most direct possible way. I highly encourage you not to miss this one.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

THE TRIAL OF THE CATONSVILLE NINE
Off-Broadway, Play
Transport Group at the Abrons Arts Center (a co-production with the National Asian American Theatre Company)
1 hour 25 minutes (without an intermission)
Through February 23