Quite a few stock characters and situations are packed into “Gabriel,” the 1997 British play that opened last night at the Atlantic.
First and foremost is the jolly, poetry-quoting Nazi officer (Zach Grenier), lording it over an occupied village. Also familiar are the flirty-but-determined widow (Lisa Emery) who protects her family by maintaining “good relations” with the Germans; the woman’s grave little girl (Libby Woodbridge), fighting the enemy in her own way; and the sexy daughter-in-law (Samantha Soule), falling for the mysterious hunk of the title (Lee Aaron Rosen), who can be anything to anyone because he has amnesia.
As for the story, it features the expected compromises and betrayals, feats of resistance and acts of submission.
But there’s a key difference with the numerous other stories of daily life during WWII: This time around, the suffering locals aren’t French.
Moira Buffini’s play takes place on one of the Channel Islands, the only part of the UK that was invaded during the war. It puts an intriguing spin on a tale that’s often been told, as we rarely see depictions of Brits living under German rule.
Buffini totters between naturalism and a ripe symbolism free of irony, the last bolstered by Riccardo Hernandez’s austere set, dominated by a giant, bunker-like slab of concrete. Even so, director David Esbjornson has a hard time pulling the two strands into a coherent whole.
The cast does its best with the poetic language, but struggles to make us overlook the fact that some big plot developments hang on people behaving stupidly — loose lips do sink ships on the Channel.
Grenier, who made a memorable Beethoven in Broadway’s “33 Variations” opposite Jane Fonda, embodies the show’s split personality. His Von Pfunz is a giggly, cultured manipulator, but the performance also feels self-conscious.
The most intriguing character is the intense child, Estelle, who has a vivid imagination and draws protective chalk squares on the floor.
She would have been played by Margaret O’Brien if “Gabriel” was a 1940s Hollywood movie — a style the show seems to aim for, but with mixed results.