Have you ever wondered what it would be like to hang out with the President of the United States' Or maybe just sit in his Office for a couple of hours while he chats with his Attorney General and Press Secretary and makes a lot of phone calls'
Well, folks, here’s your big fat chance, and in perfect time to stop obsessing over Don and Hil (so yesterday!) and have much more fun with the politics created by David Mamet in his wickedly satirical play “November” currently running at the Pennsylvania Playhouse.
Directed by Ralph Montesano, the entire three acts of “November” take place over one day and the next morning in the Office of the President of the United States, and while we are told in the preface that the play opened in 2006 in NYC, the script sounds as fresh as though it had been written yesterday, with references to building a wall to control immigrants and several other up-to-the-minute political situations which I was told had not been added for current audiences. Mamet’s writing style is very conversational, the rhythm is fast-paced and the language is, well, not meant for the kiddies, but after a while the ‘f-word’ just becomes one more adjective that fades into the background and hardly gets noticed for all its commonality in the dialogue.
So who is speaking all this stuff, you might be asking. And the answer is, mostly, the POTUS, for short, or for long, the President of the United States, Charles Smith, played with deft humor and winning understatement by the fine actor Pat Kelly, who spends all of Act I conferring with his Attorney (or perhaps Attorney General') a robustly played role which requires considerable confidence to keep the POTUS on his toes with a lot of rapid-fire answers to the President’s many questions. Eric D. Hersh as Archer Brown fills this role with great conviction. When President Smith is not busy grilling Mr. Brown on some matter of factual nicety (“How much is turkey selling for these days'”) - trust me on this – he is busy on the phone with various constituents – oh and also his wife, who must be a terrible gossip. One of the funniest conversations, which you would swear all have real live people at the other end, involves quite a convoluted monologue on Mr. Kelly’s part with Chief Dwight Grackle of the Sorry Folks I Wasn’t Taking Notes Tribe. It is just too hilarious. Pat does about the best imaginary phone conversations I have seen in all my many years of watching live theatre.
Acts II and III bring into focus the other three members of the cast. First comes the Turkey Guy, otherwise known as Joseph Klucsarits in real life. This Guy desperately wants the Prez to pardon his two turkeys for Thanksgiving and has been raising them in (almost) hermetically sealed chambers to keep them safe until such time as they can be pardoned on national TV. For this privilege, (he is a purveyor of turkeys) he is willing to become a major contributor to the needy/greedy President’s upcoming second campaign. The lengths to which the Turkey Guy goes to get his birds pardoned are hilarious, and Mr. Klucsarits keeps right on pitching in a wonderfully comic portrayal right up to the last moments.
Rounding out the cast are the two well-known veterans Laura Sweeney Riker as Clarice Bernstein, the Press Secretary to Charles Smith, and Jerry Brucker as Chief Dwight Grackle from the Indian Reservation of The Land of Long Ago. Laura gives a very sincere portrayal as the about-to-be-married lesbian woman who is a key to President Smith’s future in more than just her ability to write successful speeches for him, but I cannot divulge too much of the plot here to say more. She is always very believable in her portrayal and makes you want to root for her all the way. Jerry’s appearance comes in only the last few minutes of the play, although he has been talked about previously, He creates a very unusual character.
The set for the President’s office fills the space at the Playhouse stage just about completely, and it makes the viewer feel very comfortable, with vertical rose and pale pink stripes on the walls and a luxurious burgundy material framing the tall windows of the office. A large cushioned sofa and a large desk and a few assorted chairs complete the stage furniture and fill the stage nicely, giving plenty of space for the characters to move about in, which they do to good effect. The floor has been painted with some clever golden rays and rose colored spackling and also a large painted circle with the logo of the President upon it. The lighting adjusts subtly through the course of the daytime hours.
As I mentioned before, but I think it bears repeating because this was opening night, this is a play with a lot of words, and I was so thankful that the pace was crisp and sharp all through the three acts. Thank you, Mr. Montesano, for what I’m sure must have been more than one reminder to the cast to keep things ‘moving along’, and BRAVO! to all the cast for following his direction! There were many chuckles all through the evening, and this play is so clever and ‘with it’ politically you ALL need to see it, no matter your Party affiliation. Grab yourself a donkey or an elephant and get out to see “November” now. You’re a winner either way! It runs September 25th – October 11th, Thursdays through Sundays.