As stories of financial doom and gloom continue to fill news headlines, a depression-era play is about to hit the Canberra stage. Poet-playwright Archibald MacLeish’s verse drama PANIC may have been written in 1935, but the story of a magnate, played by Tony Turner, and the panic-driven cries of a populace who turn to him for help to stay afloat during the Great Depression certainly still resonates in today’s financial climate. In its Australian premiere, director and researcher Andrew Holmes presents an interpretation of the play that stays true to its origins, whilst bringing the story to contemporary audiences, themselves familiar with the trials and tribulations of capitalist society.
Panic is a classic tale of the dichotomy between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’. The former is represented by bank magnate McGafferty, the play’s protagonist, and the latter by a crowd of middle class citizens, fearing for their financial future amidst great economic hardship. The play derives its energy from the human drama between these groups, and their poetic dialogue. Action takes place between two sets; McGafferty’s office and on the streets below, where a group of angry and desperate citizens make panicked cries to the banker, pleading for his help. Those quick to see McGafferty and the capitalist powerhouses he represents as the enemy may be surprised by the production. Rather than dislike McGafferty, Holmes hopes that, by the end of the production, audiences “can identify with the lead character”.
Despite being a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner MacLeish is likely to be an unfamiliar name to many in Australia. A one-time Librarian of Congress and Academy Award winner, MacLeish has what Holmes calls “cult-hero status” in America. He comments that MacLeish wrote in a “very American” style, which explains this status. Amidst this public persona, his impressive collection of poetry and prose has been neglected – with this obscurity something that researchers like Holmes love. The director is writing his PhD on MacLeish, and hopes that through his research, including the showing of Panic and another MacLeish play, Fall of the City, later this year, will make people more aware of the writer and Modernist verse drama.
Given the production is being staged for research purposes, Holmes has invited audiences to come along for free. Yes, it’s free! His main interest is seeing how audiences respond to Panic, especially its verse style. In order to capture these responses, audiences will be asked to fill out feedback forms after each performance. Those attending Thursday performances will also be invited to participate in a Q & A forum after the show. This is a unique opportunity for theatregoers, offering a rare insight into the production that MacLeish, as a social commentator, would have appreciated.
Panic exemplifies MacLeish’s Modernist style, focussing on the society in which he lived. His works have been described as the voice of reason amid a troubled capitalist society, as his writing attempted to traverse the middle ground between realism and idealism. At the same time, the narratives in these works encourage unity, rather than looking for someone or something to blame. Holmes believes that these universal themes are the ultimate message of the play. The director goes on to explain that the strength of MacLeish’s writing, including Panic, lies in its ability to provide “real insight into what humanity has to deal with”. This insight offers as much to contemporary audiences as to those who lived through the Great Depression.
Panic’s verse style works perfectly with the play’s disjuncture between realism and idealism. As Holmes points out, despite the plot being based on real events, the verse style, which he describes as “like music” is something unnatural, being a form of expression that people do not use in everyday life. This blend of human drama with poetic artifice is something that writers have long drawn on to create human engagement with their works. Fans of Shakespeare will be familiar with the verse drama, but may not be aware that this style – which has its origins in Greek tragedy – was also embraced by Modernist writers, including William Butler Yeats and T.S. Eliot.
In Panic, MacLeish draws on the tradition of verse drama to emphasise the disparity between McGafferty and the panicked citizens. Throughout the play, McGafferty speaks with longer, rougher prose, while the people on the street are given more elegant, shorter lines. This difference successfully separates the perspectives of McGafferty and ‘the people’. It also helps capture the banker’s isolation and need to explain himself, whereas the people are bolstered by many voices, needing fewer words to express their point of view. The playwright’s unique style of verse drama was developed, as Holmes contends, “to capture the American language”. This verse style, which rarely hits the Canberra stage, offers something different for audiences.
While the title of the play may cause pulses to rise, the moral of the story is ultimately: don’t panic! Although written almost 80 years ago, Panic has much to say about the way we live our lives and the social mechanisms through which our world operates. Given that the world is as driven by capitalism and the economic divide between the rich and the poor as it was in the 1930s, the play promises to offer some insight into the way we all live our lives. On that note, the last word goes to Holmes, who promises that Panic will be “unlike anything audiences will have seen before”.
Panic is a free production and will be showing on the Main Stage at the ANU Arts Centre from Thursday-Saturday August 18-27. Bookings can be made via email to andrew.holmes@anu.edu.au .
