The New Old Testament

THE TERM "Story Theatre" describes a certain type of play using imaginative improvisations, direct interchange with the audience and dialogue interspersed with songs and chants. Beginner's Luck, a new play based on the Biblical tale of King Saul and David now running at the Reality Theater in Boston, employs such an approach, but rather than adding a new dimension to the narrative, it breaks up the plot's continuity and mars some of the play's best-written scenes.

However, despite certain flaws--the play's excessive three-hour length, its occasionally cloying cuteness and sententiousness--Beginner's Luck pulls through very well. The play is well-written, for the most part, and the acting leaves little to be desired.

The play describes the battle for power between King Saul of Israel and the shepherd boy David over who should sit on the throne, as narrated in the two books of Samuel. Jon Lipsky, the playwright, remains faithful to the Biblical narrative but takes extensive liberties with the characters. He depicts Saul (Tim McDonough), a donkey-driver unexpectedly lifted to power, as a bumbling, good-natured clown rather than following the original portrait of a man fated to disobey God's commands. David (Suzanne Baxstresser), the young hero of the tale, emerges as a Machiavellian schemer whose love of power makes him patient enough to wait for it. Samuel Steven Weinstein)--in the Bible a wise judge--becomes the string-pulling kingmaker, a self-styled and arrogant Rasputin figure. Lipsky adds the role of Ruth (Phoebe Barnes), a local witch who loves and is loved by Saul, but who loses out to Saul's political ambition and his sense of duty.

Lipsky also adds two narrators, who double as townspeople and account for many of the problems of the play--anticipating the story before the end, proclaiming self-conscious gems of wisdom, and providing annoying and embarrassing animal noises.

THE PLOT OF THE PLAY generally follows the Biblical narrative: Samuel chooses Saul when the Israelites clamor for a king. Saul, a study in kingly ineptitude, disappoints Samuel in war and in government; consequently, Samuel shifts his favor secretly to David. David lives with Saul, who comes to love him as a son; but alas, David schemes to take power, aided by Samuel. A growing rivalry between the two leads David to defect to the Philistines, a belligerent tribe. David wins the battle, then drives the Philistines out, and feigns a sense of bereavement over the death of Saul in the battle's aftermath.

A fairly simple plot--had Lipsky not chosen to interrupt the flow of the narrative with digressions and, in one case, an audience sing-along in the especially feeble Act I. At times Lipsky contrasts very well for comic effect the modern simplicity of Saul's words with the more formal diction of the other characters. For example, in the middle of a long tirade by Samuel, Saul interjects, "You know, you're a very gloomy person." But after a while, the wide-eyed stuff gets a bit grating.

IN SPITE OF THESE structural weaknesses, the play contains many very moving and well-acted moments. The growing relationship between David and Saul that mixes rivalry with reluctant affection is subtly written and strikingly portrayed by Baxstresser and McDonough. Baxstresser's gender does not impede her portrayal of David; her slim, boyish looks overcome her feminine voice. Deceptively earnest and naive at first, Baxstresser waxes tense and ruthless. McDonough as Saul conveys the innocence and incompetence which plauge Saul very well, although at times he hammers in Saul's stupidity with overplayed grimaces and heavy-handed humor. Nevertheless, the scene where David reveals his ambition ranks as one of the best in the play. Saul incredulously asks, "How could you pretend for so long?", which David answers with contempt and superiority.

McDonough's Saul and Weinstein's Samuel also play off each other very well. When Samuel reprimands Saul, the tension between the two suggests a father-son confrontation. In a particularly gripping scene, Samuel, laughing maniacally, hacks to pieces a king captured in battle who Saul had refused to execute. In general, Weinstein does well with a poorly-written part. Samuel is unbelievably mystical, with his prophecies and his yoga-like formulas for steeling oneself to face death or danger.

The scenes between Ruth and Saul are unquestionably the most realistic and the most engrossing in the play. Barnes's Ruth shines in both her dimensions--suitably mysterious in her witchcraft, wise and shrewishly loving in her human relations. Whenever he faces serious trouble, Saul seeks out his mistress Ruth, who tartly reprimands him for selfishly taking and not giving, but helps him nevertheless. Ruth is the only character in the play who really understands Saul's limitations, and how unsuited he is for his role of king.

RATHER THAN A PLAY primarily about power, this play focuses more on relationships--and the interweaving of power, love and betrayal. Lipsky's philosophizing at the play's end about Israel's decline from Moses's cooperative tribal government to the power politics infecting David and Saul falls flat, perhaps owing to the narrator's underlining of the self-evident. Better to stick to what he does best--implying the moral of the play through well-written character confrontations--and leave Story Theater for fairy tales.