Los Angeles Theatre Review: The Exorcist (at the Geffen Playhouse)

In 1971, William Peter Blatty came out with The Exorcist, a novel inspired by a real-life event from the 1940s.  The book was a bestseller and Hollywood immediately pounced on the property releasing the film version only two years later.  William Friedkin's chiller scared the Hell out of a nation and was a huge hit (one of the highest grossers of the 1970s), scoring multiple Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.  The story dealt with a crisis of faith and the unreliability of science to explain spiritual phenomenon.  John Pielmeier, the playwright who adapted the book for the stage, has had experience in dealing with religious myths and the unexplainable.  He adapted his own play for the feature length film Agnes of God back in 1985, which garnered him an AMPAS nod.  His Exorcist steers as far away from the film as possible, but there is only so much embellishment of smaller details in the book which can produce anything new or surprising content-wise.  The play treads through the plot-points while fully absorbed in the theological struggles of the characters.  Chris MacNeil (Brooke Shields, with her amazing bone structure and cascading brunette locks) is a mother who searches for answers to save her girl Regan (Emily Yetter) whose body is inhabited by a demon.  Exhausted of options, she's lead to Father Damien Karras (David Wilson Barnes), who wrestles with his own conscience, having allowed his mother to die lonely and improperly attended.  Tony-winner John Doyle provides sobering direction for the clerical figure and mother so helpless in their own plights, most emotions are quite inaccessible.  Many of the conversations take place in a clinical fashion across almost the entire length of the Geffen stage.  Also in the cast is Richard Chamberlain, who performs the role of Father Merrin in the finale, after spending the entire production reminding the audience through several asides about the likely existence of the devil.  As well, Harry Groener plays the unexamined flamboyant film director Burke Dennings, in a role beefed up for the stage.  


Scenic Designer Scott Pask created a gorgeous Gothic set which accentuates the sweeping gestures of the play's grand Catholic themes.  A thick life-size cross hung from chains lords over the single-set stage comprised of an altar which doubles as a a bed surrounded by tall wrought-iron walls.  The grandiose fixture envelops the proceedings and provides a rest area for actors not in a scene (no one ever leaves the stage).  Jane Cox's lighting bathes the proceedings in high contrast, sometimes decorated by a wall of thick lit-up ribbons and fog emanating from the wings.  Aside from Regan levitating (I have no idea how they pulled it off) and a surprise in the finale (which you won't see in the film), the minimalist production has little special effects other than some sound-distortions, including moments when the possessed Regan speaks.

One of my (as well as Pauline Kael's) main beefs with the film was what the filmmakers put 13-year-old Linda Blair through.  While the movie is both shocking and effective, it's difficult to reconcile the price that had to be paid.  In the staged version, the able-bodied Yetter (who sounds like a little girl, but is of an indeterminate age) engages in contortionist moves that simulate the bulk of Regan's physical possession.  Even the nasty things that come out of her mouth are spoken by an ensemble of males, including a voice-over (similar to how Mercedes McCambridge provided the demon's vocals in the movie, but less insidious and more Zurg) and the urination scene is simulated.  The evil that lurks within her is telegraphed, perhaps convincingly enough for those who believe in supernatural evil.

The Exorcist is 95-minutes without intermission and plays through August 12th.  You can find out more information here.