Slightly mad

Ovation Stage director Penny Kline says that she views The Madwoman of Chaillot as more relevant today than when it was first produced 69 years ago. Though this political and social satire by French playwright Jean Giraudoux was written in 1943, notably during World War II—and not performed until after the playwright's death in 1945—it's fascinating to pick out the modern parallels that Kline refers to as a “parable for our times.”

It's corporations against community, where the masters of commerce are more interested in the oil beneath the streets of Paris than in the joie de vivre of the artists and musicians that roam the neighborhoods. The Madwoman of Chaillot has shades of theater of the absurd with a quirky cornucopia of street performers and alternative thinkers who battle the badasses of the business world—a quiet rebellion led by the Madwoman of Chaillot, a woman of cunning charm with a touch of merry madness.

The first act takes place in front of a Paris cafe abuzz with patrons—both those enjoying a meal and those dabbling in the arts, and where four moneyed men converge to discuss an oil-drilling proposition. The second act moves underground to the sewers of Paris, where both the oil and the opposition are hidden from sight.

The play itself can be a bit maddening and frustrating with so much action and subplots whirling around and behind the main conversations that the storyline is never quite coherent. Which is probably why Madwoman isn't produced very often. But there are moments that cleverly pose the dichotomy of opposing societal goals—business vs. beauty, the pleasure of money vs. the pleasure of a life well-lived.

Ovation Stage stages an admirable undertaking with a cast of 24 and a crew of 16, transforming the expansive California Stage theater to an intimate Paris street scene, and later to the confines of an underground cavern. There are many fun moments and interesting scenes that capture the conflict—most notably when the businessmen talk biz, and later when a group of madwomen banter like The Real Housewives of Chaillot.

Unfortunately, there tend to be so many swirling, buzzing characters—such as singers, musicians, a fortune-teller, a juggler, a mime and a flower girl—constantly milling about, that they become distractions to a main storyline that's puzzling to begin with. But there are some nice performances, including Janet Motenko as the Madwoman, along with the actors portraying her co-madwomen conspirators and the morally challenged moneymen.