Are You Now or Have You Ever Been

The House Un-American Activities Committee of the 1950 s returns to our lives by way of a superb production by L.A. Theatre Works. The drama is based on the actual testimony of several blacklisted members of the entertainment community. The cast of 18 actors painfully recounts the loss of livelihood and liberty encountered by the victims of the inquisitional legislators. The interplay of speakers with background voices makes the piece imminent, frightening and sad–as one remembers that this, too, was America. Harris Yulin as Lionel Sanders makes us feel frustration. James Earl Jones as Paul Robeson clarifies the indignities that Robeson suffered for his humanity. This is an important work, which stays in the mind long after the gavel sounds. J.P. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award –AudioFile Magazine

About the Author
Eric Bentley, (born September 14, 1916 in Bolton, Lancashire, England) is a renowned critic, playwright, singer, editor and translator. He became an American citizen in 1948, and currently lives in New York City. In 1998 he was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame; he is also a member of the New York Theater Hall of Fame, in recognition of his years of performances in cabarets. He has written many critical books, including A Century of Hero-Worship, The Playwright as Thinker, Bernard Shaw, What is Theatre?, The Life of the Drama, Theatre of War, Brecht Commentaries, and Thinking about the Playwright. He has also edited The Importance Of Scrutiny (1964), a collection of pieces from a now defunct critical magazine, and Thirty Years of Treason: Excerpts from Hearings Before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, 1938 1968 (1971); his most produced play, Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been (more properly Are You Now or Have You Ever Been: The Investigations of Show-Business by the Un-American Activities Committee 1947-1958), published in 1972, was based on these texts. Another play, Lord Alfred's Lover, treats on Oscar Wilde.


Cast
Narrator/Hellman - Helen Horton
Investigator - Ed Bishop
Chariman - Ramsay Williams
Dmytryk/Kazan/Miller/Nixon - Peter Banks
Hayden/Kraber/Lawrence/Wayne - John Bay
Stander/Menjou - Hal Galili
Robbins/Brecht - Gordon Sterne
Burrows/Parnel-Thomas - Rick Wilson
Lawson/Mandel - Christopher Malcolm
Lardner/Berkeley - Robert Whelan
Parks - Bob Sherman
Paul Robeson - Thomas Baptiste

*Full title:
'Are You Now or Have You Ever Been: The Investigations of
Show-Business by the Un-American Activities Committee 1947-1958'.