Arts

A Timely Take on Terkel

by Jules Becker
Thursday Aug 26, 2021

This article is from the August 26, 2021 issue of South End News.


It would be hard to think of any recent writer whose insights are more timely during the COVID-19 era than those of Studs Terkel. The indefatigable activist (1912-2008) interviewed hundreds of ethnically and financially diverse Americans in a wide-ranging 1970 exploration of the impact of the Great Depression. Now actor-director Tim Robbins and Actors' Gang Theater have culled a 30-person cross-section from Terkel's ground-breaking oral history "Hard Times" in three stand-alone parts. Entitled "We Live On," this powerful Zoom staging serves not only as a tribute to the master interviewer but also as a very immediate look at the ways in which the thoughts and lives—both disturbing and inspiring—of the interviewees resonate today.
As in Terkel's work, the responses of the interviewees—with informative updates about the subjects—center on employment issues, family and individual concerns, organized labor, women's struggles, the 1929 crash, the Depression itself and the New Deal. Director Robbins and Actors' Gang have put together a fascinating combination of talking heads, photo footage and iconic songs such as "Hobo Lullaby" and Woody Guthrie's "Deportees." Besides strong efforts from talented actors, the three parts smartly feature relatives (and in one case a friend) delivering some of the narratives. In these cases, the generational connections add significantly to the title's implication that the subjects' stories remain impactful in our own times.
That contemporary impact becomes apparent as early as the opening part. As a hardworking, laid-off African-American Louis Banks was sentenced to working in a chain gang for vagrancy. Jeronimo Sphinx brings immediacy and good intensity to Banks' ordeals. Morton De Vries, a staunch Herbert Hoover supporter, blamed the victims of the Depression for FDR's relief programs—with many Americans faulting jobless workers for accepting assistance through the Biden rescue plan. The unflinching narrative speaks of actual Americans being illegally deported during the 1930's—an injustice that may call to mind the Obama administration's many deportations and the separation of children from parents during the Trump presidency.
Women fighting against sexist injustice come to the fore in the saga of labor organizer Evelyn Finn. A precursor to the film activist Norma Rae, Finn led sit-ins and pushed for suits with union labels. Jeanette Horn makes Finn's tenacity come to life in her delivery. A plucky survivor of domestic abused named Ruth Gray Ratner, who later worked as a seamstress and loved to dance, demonstrated her own inner strength.
By contrast to Finn and Ratner, repo man Harry Hartman comes across as a proverbial mixed bag. On the one hand, he participated in an East Side eviction near a kosher butcher and left some poor people without furniture and sleeping on the floor. On the other hand, he purposely claimed some beds were not healthy so that he could give them to children. Vincent Foster does well conveying the story of Hartman's conflicted feelings and actions.
The middle part focuses on diversely ethnic workers and their struggles with injustice. Mexican-American Dolores Huerta-who would co-found the International Farm Workers Union along with Cesar Chavez, confronts discrimination along with other Spanish-speaking sugar beet crop workers (including no toilets and water in beer cans). Ed Paulsen, a California fan of activist Upton Sinclair, spoke of farmers destroying milk surpluses to keep the price up—something known to have happened as well in recent times. Chicago teacher Elsa Ponselle marched with colleagues for fair treatment. Stephanie Pinnock caught Poncelle's resolve in her narrative.
Still, some theatergoers maybe struck the most by the rise of another if controversial conflicted figure-namely legendary entertainer Sally Rand. Rand worked in summer stock theater but also enjoyed dancing with ostrich feather fans. Patty Tippo brings the right panache to Rand's ascent. Here—in a pro-Union song—and throughout the three units multi-talented Cameron Dye sings representative songs with fine feeling and accompanies himself on guitar and harmonica.
Songs are also strongly supportive in the final part—with "We Shall Not Be Moved" endorsing opposition to evictions and women marching to the anthem-like "Bread and Roses." Lyrical poetry looms as well in memorable lines from gay Harlem Renaissance giant Langston Hughes—especially from the telling and still timely poem " Dream Deferred." Cyrus Roberts catches the beauty and poignancy of Hughes' verses. Cady Zuckerman brings engaging affection to the narrative of the Zuckerman New Yorkers—activist Larry and pogrom escaping matriarch Charlotte. Besides Hughes, other notables that receive important attention are unionizing giant Cesar Chavez and Catholic activist Dorothy Day, who unequivocally defended gay counterparts.
Terkel wrote about ordinary people doing extraordinary things and insisted that they "must count." Robbins and the Actors' Gang cast, in their beautiful adaptation of Terkel's important oral history, are doing just that in a way that also meaningfully impacts today's diverse Americans.