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review "Nice guys and sissies don't win elections." If you thought that scummy political battles were the by-products of the late 80s and 90s, guess again. Just go back to the 50s and take a look at the ugly red-baiting and racist tactics that that went on during the Richard Nixon-Helen Gahagan Douglas California Senate race, the subject of playwright Keith Reddin's engrossing meditation on the old maxim "The more things change, the more they stay the same." Two strong personalities: Douglas (a brittle, foul-mouthed, but ultimately sympathetic Linda Gehringer) is a leftist woman running for office during the Cold War; a time when women wore pearls while cleaning house and subversives were summarily jailed or blacklisted. Then there's Nixon (an eerily perfect resurrection by Greg Stuhr), a conservative pitbull pointing fingers at the "Pink Lady" while wrapping himself in the old red, white and blue. The ensuing character assassination and mud-slinging won Nixon the election and killed Douglas' political future. This very balanced, very funny, very smart play isn't some boring historical re-hash, which it could have been very easily. Instead, it's Reddin's conversation with the two politicos, with the winning performances and focused direction by David Emmes delivering a modern political tragedy in all of its gory humanity. While my natural empathy is for Douglas--I'm no fan of Tricky Dick--when Nixon begins wavering between the ethical and the corrupt, egged on by his mean-spirited campaign advisor, Roy (an aquiline Richard Doyle in all of his vicious, shark-attack glory), I ended up being sucked into the fight for the man's soul. Against my better intentions, I liked the young Nixon and empathized with the warring complexities within him, hoping against hope that he wouldn't make the fateful choices that he eventually does. |