The brief but incandescent and courageous life of Randolph Bourne is re created in The Body of Bourne, a play by John Belluso now in its world premiere at the Mark Taper Forum. Developed in the Other Voices Project, the Taper's workshop for disabled theater artists, Bourne deals with a severely handicapped man who by dint of intellect and charisma overcame his limitations to become one of America's boldest and bravest intellectuals.
Born in 1886, Bourne (played by the compelling Clark Middleton) survived a "messy" birth that left him physically disfigured and stunted. Belluso shows what life was like for such a person in the USA, which, like many other countries, had laws prohibiting the "maimed and deformed" from participation in normal society. Bourne's mother (Jenny O'Hara) encouraged him to study, though, and his mental prowess was such that he was awarded a scholarship to Columbia University. Roomed with a compassionate and handsome young man (Stephen Caffrey), Bourne blossomed on campus and began to write on social and cultural themes for the school newspaper. He also fell in love with a beautiful young girl (Heather Ehlers) who, in one of the most powerful scenes in the play, suddenly reveals her long-buried disgust with his appearance. As Belluso shows, Bourne faced such painful rejection all his life, yet refused to be crushed or embittered by it. Ever the optimist, he became a full-time writer after graduating from Columbia, moving to Greenwich Village and finding his place in the alternative cultural movement known as Bohemia.
Bourne's best scenes involve such fellow Bohemians as Eugene Debs, Max Eastman and Jane Addams, all fighters for social change and justice. Bourne held his own with them by turning out one brilliant essay after another in which he wrote critically about race, politics, art, society -- and the rights of the handicapped.
The ultimate challenge for Bourne (and other intellectuals) was WW I. His opposition to that imperialist war was strong and unflinching, even in the face of being called a coward and a traitor. Bourne gives us a rare and sympathetic portrait of an American radical, one who struggled to the end (which came in 1918, from tuberculosis) to change the way society worked and thought.
Director Peterson and her 13-person cast (many of whom play multiple roles) make the most of this biographical drama, giving it a passion and spirit which lift it above the ordinary.
