Fusion to bring John Steinbeck play to life with first main stage production since 2020

Sep. 9—After the slaughter of World War II, the nation turned to an idealized family system to heal.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning writer John Steinbeck did not believe acquiring a wife, a house, a car and two children was the answer to the trauma.

"He talked about men looking for the 'perfect' woman," said Jacqueline Reid, Fusion co-founder and director. "There is no such thing. It's about intimacy with one another. It's an intimacy beyond our own limited concepts.

"We still have to wrestle with this."

Fusion will produce Steinbeck's "Burning Bright," its first main stage production since 2020, from Sept. 15-25. The play will take place at their expanded indoor campus at 708 First St. NW. The space boasts three times the seating capacity of the company's The Cell theater.

Steinbeck penned the 1950 work as an experiment with producing a play in novel format.

The story is a simple morality play concerning Joe Saul, an aging man desperate for a child. His young wife, Mordeen, who loves him, suspects that he is sterile, and in order to please him by bearing him a child, she becomes pregnant by Saul's cocky young assistant, Victor. Friend Ed, a longtime friend of Saul and Mordeen, helps the couple through the ordeal after Joe discovers that he is indeed infertile and the child cannot be his.

The first act is set in a circus, Saul and Victor are trapeze artists and Friend Ed, a clown; in the second act, Saul and Friend Ed become neighboring farmers and Victor appears as Saul's farmhand. In the final act Saul is the captain of a ship, Mr. Victor, his mate and Friend Ed a seaman about to put out on a different ship.

"His beautifully poetic language gets to the heart of the matter of deep bass notes and the human psyche," Reid said of Steinbeck. "He's almost like a psychotherapist. We come digging deep down into motivation both good and bad."

One of the men takes the other to task, Reid said.

"He says, 'You have the opportunity to find beauty all around you. The only thing stopping you is your own diseased soul,' " she said.

Reid helms a veteran cast, including David Sinkus and Gregory Wagrowski, and introduces Danyal Budare and Sheridan Johnson.

Following "Burning Bright," the remainder of the 2022 season includes George Brant's "Grounded" in October and "The Real Inspector Hound" by Tom Stoppard in November.

'Burning Bright'

by John Steinbeck

WHEN: 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 15, and Friday, Sept. 16; 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 17; 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 18; repeats through Sept. 25

WHERE: Fusion, 708 First St. NW

HOW MUCH: $40; $35 seniors; $20 students, plus fees, at fusionnm.org, 505-766-9412