Back to Vicuña

A decade ago, I wrote an article about the strangest, most eerie experience I'd ever had and have had since and expect to ever have seeing a play live in the theater. It was notable at the time, but in the 10 years that have passed, it not only has taken on even greater resonance, but the play (which was a world premiere production) was far more prescient. I had seen the play the night before, on November 9, 2016.

I will note that the 2016 presidential election with Hillary Clinton and Trump was on November 8. And the play, Vicuña, by Jon Robin Baitz, was described at the time on the Center Theatre Group's website as a satire about "a blustering real estate tycoon and reality TV star who — to everyone’s surprise —becomes a major party’s nominee for President." Imagine the hilarity in the West Los Angeles theater, the audience still raw and recovering from the election results one day before.

But it was even more eerie and prescient than what you might be imagining. (Just for the sake of theatrical perspective, you may have read that Julia Louis-Dreyfus made her Broadway debut last week in a revival of the dramatic comedy Other Desert Cities, which had received a Tony nomination as Best Play and won the Outer Circle Critics Award in 2011.  The play was written by the same Jon Robin Baitz who wrote Vicuña. He also created the TV series Brothers & Sisters.)

I thought today was a good time to repeat that article about the unearthly theater experience, not only because the perspective a decade later gives it even more meaning -- something I wouldn't have thought likely at the time -- but also for a brief update on the play.

---

Vicuña

November 10, 2016

Well, that was an odd experience.

I had tickets a couple weeks ago to see a world premiere production of the play Vicuña by Jon Robin Baitz, which is running at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City.  However, when I had bought the tickets a few months earlier, it had never occurred to me -- given a lifetime of experience as a Chicago Cubs fan -- to check to see if there'd be any conflict with the beloved Cubs playing in the World Series.  As it happened, this year there was.  Who'd a thought?  So, I blew off the show. However, I'm very slightly acquainted with the play's author Robbie Baitz (only through email.  We exchanged a lot of them during the last Writers Guild strike several years back), so I did want to see it.  Plus, the story sounded interesting, and I'd have wanted to see it regardless.  Happily, I was able to exchange seats for another evening, with a service charge.  And so instead, I ended up going last night. The very night after the presidential election.

Why is that an odd experience?  Here's the premise of the show, described as a satire on the Center Theatre Group's website --

"A tailor to the wealthy, powerful, and famous struggles to serve a very unusual client: a blustering real estate tycoon and reality TV star who—to everyone’s surprise—becomes a major party’s nominee for President. As the election spins out of control, the tailor and his apprentice are forced to examine their roles as confidants and image-makers for the candidate…and whether the right suit has the power to clinch the presidency."

I have absolutely no doubt that people who went to the play two weeks ago, before the election, had an UTTERLY and TOTALLY different reality from watching it one day after the actual, real-life election. Knowing the results and who was elected president.

Honestly, I really wasn't sure I was even up for going to see a satire about this, just two days after votes were in, and I considered blowing it off again.  But a month ago I'd sent a note Robbie to say that I'd be going, and even though I don't even know if he remembered, I felt a certain obligation.

And the truth is that it was indeed a tough play now to sit through.  To be clear, when I say "now," I mean literally that.  Now, seeing it the day after the election.  I don't think it will be as much the case in three months, when the reality is less a body jolt, and likely (hopefully) not at all in a year, having time to add perspective.  But right now?  Yes, it was extremely difficult.  There are a lot of very funny lines in the first act, ridiculing the buffoonish character -- though I think I only laughed twice, and both times had nothing to do with politics.  But it was certainly very well-written.

What's good to note though is that, although described as a satire, that doesn't mean the whole play is funny -- in fact, the second act takes a turn from the jokes and becomes dramatic.  And then ratchets things up even more and even gets a bit dark. And it's really quite strong, building surprisingly to an unexpected, impactful conclusion.  Make no mistake, good as the show is, it was still very raw and difficult to watch only one day after the election -- the audience was very responsive throughout, although clearly muted, which was equally clear watching faces and body language at intermission -- but the show nonetheless works very well even under such conditions because ultimately it's not a joke-fest making fun of the character and situation (as it seemed would be in the first act) but turns out to have a deeply meaningful, and harsh subtext that bubbles to the surface and takes over.

Jon Robin Baitz is a terrific writer, with a great many plays to his credit, perhaps most notably Other Desert Cities which got a Tony nomination as Best Play and won the Outer Circle Critics Award in 2011.  He also created the TV series Brothers & Sisters.

Harry Groener (who most people would like recognize from his many genial appearances on TV and films, as well as Broadway) stars at the candidate.  And the other recognizable actor in the show is Brian George, who plays the tailor, and who has a very long acting career, too, though most-certainly is best known as "Babu" on Seinfeld.  I noticed a bunch of stumbles in the first scene (it's possible that, being a first production and so timely, there are some line changes being tweaked), perhaps too the rawness of the reality affects the cast, as well.  In any event they were gone by the end of the first act.  More to the point, the whole cast was very good -- Ramiz Monsef plays the outspoken apprentice tailor whose parents have a questionable immigration status.  And Samantha Sloyan is the candidate's daughter and campaign manger, who begins to see the quandary she's involved in as her father's dark side slowly surfaces.  Also, in a small role, but with a great monologue is Linda Gehringer who plays the party's chairwoman sent on a mission to buy the candidate off so that he will drop out of the race before destroying the party, and possibly the country.

I'm extremely glad I saw the show.  I just wish it wasn't last night and under these circumstances.  But it certainly made it unique, an experience most people won't have...

[UPDATE: Needless-to-say, the dark sub-plot of the play about immigration took on a great deal more meaning and prescience in subsequent years. And though the reality of the election put a screeching halt to the play's immediate plans, it did finally get a new staging -- in fact, as I postulated above, a year later, in December, 2017. And, in of all places, in Washington, D.C. The production had a good run and strong reviews. The opening line of the Washington Post review called the play "scaldingly funny" and referred to it as a "penetrating comedy." Also, there was a new addendum now included. As the Post writes --

["The newly written 'American Epilogue' Baitz has appended is of a wholly divergent tone from what has come before on this invigorating evening. It’s mournful, even solemn, but not righteous or resigned. If anything, it’s a consoling finale, suiting you up for whatever struggle you may believe lies ahead.]