Howard Korder's epic historical drama is that rare theatrical bird, a socially-conscious work that looks deep into the American soul and exposes the cancers eating away at it (lust for empire and power, naivete, violence, racism, religious fanaticism). Featuring a 17-person cast, produced at a cost of $750,000, The Hollow Lands is an immensely ambitious project for a mid-sized theater like South Coast Rep to mount, especially in light of the play's harsh, uncompromising point of view. SCR surely knew that a sizable percentage of its subscriber-based audience would be upset by Korder's savage dissection of the American Dream, an assessment borne out on opening night when at least a third of those in attendance failed to return for the third act, and when the curtain-call applause gave a new meaning to lukewarm. For this reason alone, SCR deserves every serious theatergoer's respect and admiration for the way it has backed Korder's discomfiting vision.
Spanning the years 1815-1857, The Hollow Lands follows the trajectory of James Newman (Michael Stuhlbarg) from the time he lands in New York from Ireland, a desperately-poor lad seeking freedom and opportunity in the nascent USA. Driven by a restlessness and self-absorption that still powers most Americans (in the name of individualism), he strikes out for the uncharted west, convinced by a messianic leader, Samuel Markham Hayes (the exemplary Mark Harelick) that another El Dorado awaits those courageous enough to attack it. Reality in the form of Indian warfare, criminal anarchy, an unforgiving landscape, lawlessness and Manifest Destiny madness soon teaches Newman the folly of his ways. He, like just about every other character, ends badly (especially Markham, who, blasted and blind, wanders the wilderness like a cowboy King Lear).
What Korder is doing is reminding us what our present material wealth and well-being is built on: the shattered dreams and lives of a misguided generation, one that opted for selfishness over the common good, with disastrous results.
