”Are You Now or Have You Ever Been” is the name of Eric Bentley`s play about the thought trials conducted by the House Un-American Activities Committee during the 1950s. It`s also the much-feared question that the committee demanded of scores of witnesses whom it suspected of Communist connections.
In Big Game Theater`s production of Bentley`s docudrama, the ugly question comes to life with a vengeance. If committee witnesses (such as Jose Ferrer and Jerome Robbins) incriminated friends who had once joined a leftist organization, they could escape jail and unemployment. If they pleaded the Fifth Amendment, they were jailed for contempt of Congress.
Rarely did a witness get to turn the tables on the committee`s inquisition. Jeff Still plays one who did. In 1953 Lionel Stander, a gravel-voiced character actor, outshouted his interrogators and accused them of being subversives-of the Bill of Rights. Jeff Still plays Stander (below, left) like a one-man hurricane (”I am not a dupe, or a dope, or a moe, or a schmoe, and I`m not ashamed of anything”)-and for one brief moment the committee loses.
Still says: ”I watched Stander`s films like `Mr. Deeds Goes to Town` and `The Kid from Brooklyn.` I tried to get the essence of his voice and movements without trying to nail down an impersonation. The rest was my chance to show what he felt.
”Stander knew he was in a no-win situation. He had already been blacklisted and knew he had nothing to lose. So he accused the committee of depending on mentally ill witnesses like Stander`s unhinged accuser, actor Martin Berkeley. Interestingly, in the movies Stander always played supportive roles. But in front of the committee he was center stage-this was his moment. He went in and tried to keep them off balance so he could tell the truth-that they were trying to impose censorship on the American theater. That really rings true to me in 1990.”
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”Are You Now or Have You Ever” runs through Sept. 23 at 1257 W. Loyola Ave.; 262-1132.
