Instant Re-Play

Back on November 11, 2016, I wrote an article here about a world premiere play I saw in Culver City called Vicuña by Jon Robin Baitz.  It was probably the strangest experience I've had seeing a play.

What made it so other-worldly?  Well, first, the play was a political satire about, as I wrote at the time, "a blustering real estate tycoon and reality TV star who—to everyone’s surprise—becomes a major party’s nominee for President."  And second, look at the date.  I'd seen the play the night before -- which was only two days after the 2016 presidential election when Trump was elected to the White House.

The play was very funny -- though there was almost no laughter in the theater.  It was eerie.  I should add, too, that it was not a comedy, and takes a dark turn in the second act, making the evening all the more chilling.  I don't explain why in the article, not wanting to give anything away.  But since enough time has passed, I'll include a brief mention of it all at the end of this piece for those interested.

I thought it was timely to repeat the original article about the play.  For the longest time, Trump's win killed the show's future life.  The comedy and satire were too raw.  However, it finally did get a production in Washington, D.C. -- to deserved good reviews.  I don't know about productions since then, but enough time has passed that it would be very effective today.  In fact, it film adaptation would be timely for one of the streaming services.  And it would be inexpensive to make, since the set locations are very limited.

So, here's that original piece.  Written three days after Trump was elected, seen the night before, two days after.  A wonderful political satire, where no one in the theater was laughing.  As I said, I'll update the play's plot a bit after the photo at the end.

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                                                       Vicuña

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 -- to check to see if there'd be any conflict with the beloved Chicago Cubs and the World Series.  As it happened, there was.  Who'd a thought?  So, I blew off the show. However, I'm very slightly acquainted with 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 I went last night.

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 watching the play two weeks ago was an UTTERLY and TOTALLY different reality from two days after the actual, real-life election.

Honestly, I really wasn't sure I was even up for going to see a satire about this, so soon after votes were in, and considered blowing it off again.  But last month I'd sent a note Robbie 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 is indeed a tough play now to sit through.  To be clear, when I say "now," I mean literally that.  Now, two days after the election.  I don't think it will be as much the case in three months, and likely (hopefully) not at all in a year.  But now?  Yes, it was difficult.  There are a lot of very funny lines in the first act, though I think I only laughed twice -- and both cases had nothing to do with politics.  But it was certainly well-written.

What's good to note though is that, although described as a satire, that doesn't mean the whole play is funny -- and, in fact, the second act takes a turn and becomes more dramatic.  And then ratchets things up even more.  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 two days 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 but turns out to have a meaningful 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 quandry 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...

And here's the very brief update about the plot which I left out of the original telling of the story.

I left it out, in part because I didn't want to give away any of the plot.  But also in part because it was just the fictional story of the play.  Not real life.

So, for people who do want to know the update --

Though what happened onstage was merely a fictional plot, with the passage of time, it turned out to be eerily prescient.  Because the "dark turn" I reference is that this buffoonish political candidate in the first act turns out, in the second act, to have a deeply racist side that grows from there and manifests itself in a fascist vision of arrests and deportations.

The audience wasn't laughing out of concern from knowing the future, but only because of what had just happened in the immediate present.  Yet, given that we were all only reacting to the election two days before, consider what I wrote above, that one of the characters in the play is sent on a mission to get the joke candidate to drop out of the race before destroying the party, and possibly the country.

What Jon Robin Baitz wrote was funny, rich and deep -- and went into totally fictional areas that I suspect he wishes today he was only imagining.