STAGE WEST: Fiasco Theater's "Bartleby" at the Old Globe

Andy Grotelueschen (left) and Michael Crane in "Bartleby."                                 Photo by Rich Soublet II

            I’ll leave it to the academics to dissect and examine from some informed critical perspective the socio-psychological intricacies of Herman Melville’s “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street” (Yikes, that sentence sounds like it was written by an academic.)
            Instead, let’s consider “Bartleby,” a theatrical adaptation of the 1853 short story that was originally published in Putnam’s Monthly Magazine of American Literature, Science and Art. Fiasco Theater’s Noah Brody and Paul L. Coffey, clearly unintimidated by Melville’s particular density, have taken “Bartleby, the Scrivener” and transformed it into a work of absurdist theater and in the process instilled in it comic devices that are in short supply in the original story.
            The play like that story hinges on one inscrutable line spoken by the neat but laconic copier (or scrivener) hired by a lawyer who presides over a small Wall Street office: “I would prefer not to.” What initially seems to prompt a “Say, what?” becomes a deadened refrain that baffles Bartleby’s infinitely patient employer while further and further exasperating the others in his employ -- scriveners Turkey and Nippers, and clerk Ginger Snap (Ginger Nut in the Melville story). Before long “I would prefer not to” applies to Bartleby’s requests to not only perform tasks on the job but to reveal anything illuminating about himself including those persistent denials. By the time he prefers not to leave the office from which he’s been dismissed, only the worst is bound to happen.
            One could legitimately question, even without having first read Melville’s short story, where the humor resides in what begins as apparent self-alienation and descends into self-destruction. Yet on opening night at the Old Globe, which commissioned this world-premiere Fiasco Theater production, there was hearty laughter in the audience and not of the nervous, unsettled kind.
            For starters, Brody and Coffey have made The Lawyer (Andy Grotelueschen) a likably pompous figure who’s much more sympathetic than in the short story. He truly wants to understand why Bartleby is demurring and he sincerely gives a damn about what happens to the enigmatic scrivener. Grotelueschen works some effective comic timing, too, on the audience and on his fellow actors. He’s entertaining to watch and to hear.
            The quirks of the clerks – I know, obvious rhyme – Turkey (Matt Dallal) and Nippers (Devin E.Haqq) include with great animation swilling from a flask after noon and cursing a blue streak before noon respectively; and direction by Emily Young keeps them and the turntable stage in motion. Were only “Bartleby, the Scrivener” as briskly moving as is this adaptation.
            As for Bartleby himself, played with robotic dignity by Michael Crane, he’s as much a mystery to the audience as he is to the characters around him. The incredulous reactions to him from The Lawyer and the others in the office may not be howling, but they are amusing.
            Everyone, especially Bartleby, is immaculately costumed for the time period by Emily Rebholz. If this were set in a 21st-century law office they’d be in polos and jeans.
            I emerged from this performance not entirely sure what it all meant while remaining firmly resistant to over-analysis in the fashion of those literary scholars to which I referred above. One realization lingered, however, and possibly that’s what even Melville planned at the outset: that all of us, at one time or another, are tempted to look duty and responsibility and commitment in the face and say no. Not now. Or “I would prefer not to.” Say this for Bartleby: He did so politely.
            Fiasco Theater’s “Bartleby” runs through March 22 at the Old Globe’s Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre in Balboa Park.