MARISOL

Post-apocalyptic theater brutality

By JULIA REISCHEL

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Daniel Berger-Jones, a BU alum and the designated "press captain" of the cheeky theater upstart he and three friends are calling the Orfeo Group, is passionate about his new company and its debut show, Marisol -- to the point of offering sexual favors to our theater critic in exchange for press coverage. We begged off with a Q&A; but damn, that's promotion for you.

Why are you called "Orfeo"?

After Orpheus, obviously. He was known to lull even the gods into these tranquil states of being through his ardent music. That's the goal: We're trying as hard as we can, regardless of the play or the style or the quality of the writing, just to put on great stories.

So you just started this year? A bunch of young people doing bare-bones theater, eh?

It's alarming how quickly people have jumped on board. Boston University is encouraging their alums to stay in Boston to revitalize the theater scene and to bring all the talent we can here, because generally it escapes to New York, and Boston is left with these little spurts of talent which leave as soon as they get their Equity cards. Hopefully, we'll set the example. We're going to invest in Boston. Those starving actors in New York who aren't getting any work -- hopefully, we can seduce them back here.

Why are you so attached to Boston, anyway?

It gave a lot to me. I'm going to practice what I preach: I'm going to give a lot back to it.

What if you got an offer to be in a Broadway show?

I would ask how long how the run was. But inevitably, I would come back to Boston. I believe very strongly that New York should be slapped with an antitrust violation. Someone's got to call their bluff.

So what makes Orfeo different from the rest of Boston theater?

You can't just whip out an idea onstage and hope it's the best thing for that character at that particular time. You have to meet these characters around town. You have to share the occasional Slurpee with a homeless guy. Like in this play, Marisol. It's a play about the 20 or so people who are just antagonizing [the lead] through forcing her to fight for something, to stand for something. I think the same thing has happened to everyone who's started the company. What's it going to take for me to quit my job; what's it going to take to scream out; what's it going to take to stop the war. That's why it was such an appropriate first play for us to do as a group. I'm sick of people trying to make money with complete disregard for the art. It should be through the immensely detailed process and tremendous effort of the actors to make art. There's no book on theater, and unfortunately, a lot of people are trying to write one.

Ouch. Why such a big chip on your shoulder?

You're never going to make a change if you only see good in the world.

So Marisol is a play about Hobbesian brutality?

It's one of these pre-millennium shows that came out around the same time as Angels in America. At the beginning, the world has disintegrated into something that is eerily similar to what it has disintegrated into under the Bush administration. The theme is that God is senile, and he's letting the world crumble. The angels are overworked and understand that God is no longer doing his job, so they decide to have a revolution. And this girl Marisol, who's had her guardian angel around, is confronted with the fact that she now has to fight for herself. Ultimately, you're confronted with a choice: Either hide in the garage and hope you don't starve to death before the Nazi death squads get you, or fight with all your might.

So it's not a peacenik play, despite being anti-war?

No. I won't say it's saying fight fire with fire, but it's certainly saying you cannot just sit and watch idly, when everyone is fighting for the other side.

How do you do that without slaughtering everybody?

The other side does. The play is brutal. There are people being set on fire, being dragged into torture chambers because they haven't paid their credit card bills.

But what about keeping your human decency?

In a world where you see into the very depths of the evil which humanity is capable of, there's no way to get back out of that but to kick and scream and bite and claw your way back.

MARISOL

THURSDAY, 8.23.07-MONDAY, 8.27.07

STUDIO 210 AT THE BOSTON UNIVERSITY THEATRE

264 HUNTINGTON AVE., BOSTON

866.811.4111

8PM/$12

ORFEOGROUP.ORG