PBS showed a half-staged version of Candide the other day. I am probably close to alone in loving that show as much as I do. It’s over-cerebral, Brechtian-distanced, shapelessly plotted (at least, as it’s generally cut down), sometimes much too slow—but it’s wonderful and I love it and always shall. I’d quite die to play the easily-assimilated Old Lady.
The production was good; I was dubious about Kristin Chenoweth as Cunegonde, but she pulled it off. I don’t like what they did to the second act, though. Yes, any production of Candide has to be cut viciously; the show is just too long, and contains too many songs that are wonderfully clever but don’t advance anything much. And yes, some of the cuts were good—if you’re going to keep Pangloss’s “Dear Boy” then there’s no reason to keep his patter-song about how Paquette gave him syphilis.
But you can’t cut without considering the shape of the whole, and this production to my mind didn’t leave enough shape. They apologized for it by emphasizing the word “picaresque” in the narration, but that’s not enough. Candide does have a thematic shape, to my mind. Our Hero starts out clueless but deeply honorable and goes through six different kinds of hell in the first act, while Our Heroine starts out greedy and soulless and gets exactly what she wants. The act ends with hope for both: Our Hero thinks he can improve his fortunes in America, while Our Heroine is quite willing to abandon her ill-got gains to go with him.
The second act is a muddle, no question about it. Myself, I think the way to play it is to demonstrate that Candide can resist every temptation, every worldly evil, and even despair itself (El Dorado, the two-faced shipmaster, and Martin) as long as he can believe in Cunegonde.
(I’d love to stage “The Simple Life,” because it’s just begging for a setpiece boat that can be shifted about by chorus members in time to the music, but I do agree with this production about cutting it. Its thematic purpose is to show Candide the way forward, despite the hypocrisy of the speakers; but Candide is strong enough to find his own way. Martin’s anti-Pangloss song of despair is more important.)
But Cunegonde too fails Candide—she is helpless throughout, dependent on her surroundings—in a part of the show this version left out. Reduced to penury, she and the Old Lady proposition a disguised Candide merely because he is rich; he recognizes her, and his heart fails at last.
Was it this, the meaning of my life?
The sacred hope I cherished?
Nothing more than this?
…
You cared for gold,
you cared for gold!
Take it with my kiss,
my bitter kiss.
Since it was this you wanted,
No more than this.
Without this, the show falls apart, I think. They really should have kept it, not just because it’s a gorgeous song (which it is), but because it’s Candide at his nadir, his last extremity. Only if he goes down this far does “Make Our Garden Grow” become a fulfillment for him.
You may be wondering why I post this analysis here rather than CavLec. I fear the answer will disappoint, but here it is nonetheless: there is a passing similarity between Candide and Renate. They can get through anything that assails them from without. Gangbangers, hired swords, demons, murderers, dragons—Renate can face them down and not flinch, game right to the end.
It is only from within that she can be hurt. Emil did it. Rien did it. Aryk did it. Aaron did it. She is careful about what she loves, but Rien demonstrates how perhaps she is not careful enough. Betray or deny her trust and her love, and she will do you the favor of destroying herself for you.
The really curious thing about this, though, is that I suspect it to be true of Dark Eternal as well. We shall see if I am right.
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