The beginning is starkly grim, and there is every reason to believe that the end will be the same. And what comes in-between isn't meant to deny those facts, but starkly grim is no longer a proper description. In The Unfortunates, now at ACT's Strand Theater, a strange and scary and wondrous world detonates within the last minutes of a doomed man's life. And it's a musical world, irresistibly so, that is yet often telling a story ultimately rooted in death.
Created by a team of five writers and its director, three of whom are also part of the cast, The Unfortunates debuted at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2013. For the past two years, they have been in residence at ACT further developing the piece for its current run. The results are a fascinating amalgam of storytelling and song that spans decades and even centuries. The one thing we know is that the world is at war, with specific elements of the first and second world wars evoked, and our hero seems to be an American prisoner of war, but those are details that don't reflect the universality that is intended.
The production begins with an army recruiter exhorting men to enlist in order to help keep "the demons at bay" while promising to a trio of carousing friends a world of excitement, easy women, and a sure way to be bound for glory. When we next see these buddies, it seems they have missed all the good parts as they await execution in a POW camp. When two display defiance, they are immediately shot, but when the third breaks their fraternal alliance with pleas to be spared, he is rewarded with a smack on the head that sends him into a nightmarish dream cabaret where fears, guilt, machismo, valor, and even joyous good times are constantly colliding.
The Unfortunates was created by Jon Beavers, Kristoffer Diaz, Casey Lee Hurt, Ian Merrigan, and Ramiz Monsef working with director Shana Cooper, and judging by the reviews that came out of the OSF production, the 90-minute piece has gone through substantial changes for its new run. Beavers, Merrigan, and Monsef are continuing in their original roles, and most of the newcomers are top-rate additions. Cooper continues as director, and what could be a sprawling muddle has both the air of spontaneity and yet a very precise control over the proceedings.
Big Joe is the soldier who is temporarily spared execution, and in whose mind the phantasmagoria takes place. Co-creator Ian Merrigan is charismatic as this character who is neither particularly bright nor empathetic as he begins his travels in his feverish dream. But as he develops attachments amid his imagined fellow travelers, and is constantly reminded of his initial cold response to the death of his two buddies, he begins to realize his own misguided bravado as his inevitable fate approaches.
In contrast to the unorthodox circumstances, the steady flow of music and songs is as inviting as you'd find in the most popular of stage musicals. At first riffing on the blues classic "St. James Infirmary," the songs cull inspiration from boogie-woogie, hip-hop, spirituals, show tunes, and minstrel shows. Accompanied by an excellent five-piece band, they are performed with an invitingly gritty tunefulness enhanced by Erika Chong Shuch's choreography.
In addition to Merrigan's Big Joe, there are also vivid performances from Taylor Iman Jones as a wingless bird-woman sensitive to Big Joe's plight, Eddie Lopez as a tap-dancing jester, Ramiz Monsef as a series of ominous characters, and Jon Beavers and Christopher Livingston as Big Joe's buddies, who return in his dream world as scavenger birds. There is a shared spirit among the whole cast, with even seemingly throwaway lines finding careful placement.
Sibyl Wickersheimer's elaborately imaginative scenic design, Katherine O'Neill's costumes ranging from workaday to fanciful, and Casey Lee Hurt's vibrant musical direction are all invaluable assets to a tale that, on the surface, reminds us that war is hell. But The Unfortunates takes us on a unique journey into one man's private hell that, in a most unexpected fashion, can also find ways to joyous manifestation.
The Unfortunates will run at ACT's Strand Theater through April 30. Tickets are $35-$95. Call (415) 749-2228 or go to act-sf.org.