'Bach' displays wit, clever dialogue

The Bloomington Playwrights Project currently is taking the audience back in time to a German church in 1722. The story takes place at Leipzig, where the organ master played his own funeral dirge as he dropped dead and his head hit the keys, which now is in sore need of a new organist. \nTo find a replacement, the clergy announces auditions and several viciously competitive artists show up with wanting eyes, ogling the chance to be the most prestigious organist in all of Germany.\n"Bach at Leipzig," written by Itamar Moses, follows this story line as seven of Germany's most well-known organists gradually wander through the city gates and assemble at the church. Those assembled are such musicians as Telemann, Graupner, Steindorff, Kauffman, Lenck, Schott and Fasch. Each one of the characters is played with very clever nuances in the production that make them memorable long after the play is over.\nMost notably are Georg Kauffman (Hal Kibbey) and Georg Telemann (Ernest Bernhardt). Kibbey plays Kauffman, who mixes an air of aloofness with innocent bumbling. He's the quintessential absent-minded artist. Kauffman spends most of his life trying to research the life of a ficticious famed composer, though he has no idea the composer doesn't exist. This may be why he can't ever come up with enough documentation about his imaginary mentor to write the biography he wants. \nKauffman is very well-played by Kibbey as the character who embodies the pitiful scheming between the vulture-like artists vying for the coveted position -- simply because he's too good-hearted to realize it's going on. An excellent example of this is the supposed "play-within-a-play" put on by the other six characters for Kauffman's benefit. Kauffman also has a few great laugh-lines that the right touch of monotone brings out very well.\nConversely, Bernhardt's character Georg Telemann has no lines at all. Telemann is one of those characters whose reputation and aura of awe is built up by the characters on stage while Telemann isn't. Telemann's character is supposedly the new top organist in Germany, whose reputation travels well in advance of his own persona -- to the point he is feared by others in his profession; the other vying organists refer to Telemann as "Him." \nKibbey excellently carries on this image by making entrances adorned in all black costuming, complete with the tri-corner hat. He struts about on stage and uses his cape as a prop to his advantage. Playwright Moses is very clever not to write in dialogue for Telemann -- it would have diminished the character's ability to live up to the reputation established for him by the other characters.\nWhile I think these two are the best characters in the whole show, that isn't to say the other characters do not show their own eccentricities, making them able to stand out well on stage. \nOne is an addicted gambler, the other is a bit neurotic with insomnia, a third continually mentions the fact he is only the No. 2 organist in Germany, and another seems to sleep with anything that moves.\nLate in the second act, a series of stage combats occur, and each of the sequences are well done. They may even be the best I've seen anywhere this season. I didn't see the misses, the reactions came at the right time, nothing seemed forced, and where precision was needed, it existed.\nOverall, director Mike Price did a really good job to make sure the play didn't drag and to keep the highs balanced out by the lows. \nHowever, throughout the entire run of the show, the basic rules of blocking were continually broken, and this was to Price's disadvantage.\nDuring much of the dialogue involving all of the characters sitting around a table drinking, as many artists seem to do, one actor always had his back to the audience. \nA better approach would have been to either make room at the table or to set him off a little further to the side, allowing the actor's profile to be seen. In other words, the audience needs to see the face, unless there is a specific reason why not seeing the faces advances the plot in some way. I didn't see that need in this show.\nDespite some downfalls, "Bach at Leipzig" is indeed a well-written, well-performed show, and I think it's a clever thing for the BPP to stage. Period humor can be difficult to execute properly, and the BPP has done an admirable job doing so.\n"Bach at Leipzig" is performed at the Bloomington Playwrights Project, 312 S. Washington St. Additional performances will take place May 15-17 at 8 p.m., May 18 at 2 p.m., May 22-24 at 8 p.m. and May 25 at 2 p.m.