[NEohioPAL] "Don't miss it." "NIXON'S NIXON is biting, funny political satire. CJN Review

[Neil Thackaberry]

'Nixon's Nixon' is biting, funny political satire

Published: Friday, October 31, 2008 1:18 AM EDT 

Reviewed by FRAN HELLER
Contributing Writer

Karl Marx said, "History repeats itself - first as tragedy, second as farce."

The Henry Kissinger character also says it in Russell Lees's "Nixon's Nixon," a smart and funny political satire about a past president with strong resonance in the present.

Lees's 1996 OBIE Award-winning play, a 90-minute two-hander presented without intermission, centers on an imaginary meeting between Richard M. Nixon and Kissinger on the eve of Nixon's resignation.



That the meeting took place is historical fact; what occurred at that meeting is pure conjecture by the playwright. His tragicomic take on a pivotal moment in history is a sobering lesson between the laughs. It's at Actors' Summit through Nov. 9.

Director Constance Thackaberry draws well-defined performances from A. Neil Thackaberry as the foul-mouthed, paranoid President Nixon and George Roth as the obsequious and cunning Secretary of State Kissinger.

In the play's preface, Lees notes that the play is about "the very human and personal struggles involved in retaining or relinquishing great power and coming to terms with one's legacy."

The setting is the Lincoln Sitting Room in the White House, President Nixon's favorite room. Sasha Thackaberry's bland set includes a miniature portrait of Lincoln, unrecognizable to the naked eye until one of the characters points it out. An enlarged image or bust of the 16th president would be more effective.

It is evening, Aug. 7, 1974. Nixon enters alone. For a brief moment, Thackaberry's sagging jowls, pursed lips, furrowed brow (great makeup and wig by MaryJo Alexander) and defiant mien suggest a fleeting glimpse of the 37th president.

Nixon has just summoned his secretary of state to a private meeting. Assuming that Nixon has already come to terms with his resignation, Kissinger now wants the president to put in a good word about him to Gerald Ford. But Nixon isn't quite ready to quit.



Tragicomic take on a pivotal moment in history is a sobering lesson between the laughs. As the evening wears on, fueled by copious amounts of booze and mutual self-puffery, each tries to get what he wants from the other. While a Nixon in denial seeks a way to retain power and the office of the presidency, an unctuous Kissinger tries to ensure his job in the next administration. Both are obsessed with how history will remember them.

As the two men jockey for the upper hand, Nixon forces a reluctant Kissinger to re-enact their foreign policy triumphs, including détente with Russia, opening up China, and ending the war in Vietnam. What follows next is a surreal sequence of role-playing and role-switching as Nixon and Kissinger impersonate a string of world leaders, including Leonid Brezhnev, Mao Zedung, Golda Meir and John F. Kennedy. Even Nixon as Napoleon makes a brief appearance. Like Napoleon, Nixon wants a second chance.

As the bespectacled Kissinger, Roth's German accent is subtle without being overdone. Thackaberry's phony grin is a dead ringer for Nixon.

Director Thackaberry keeps the pacing swift as the two men circle each other like boxers in a ring. The dialogue flies fast and furious, with Nixon switching gears in mid-sentence as he veers from one subject to the next. While Thackaberry and Roth play off one another with ease, they need to be a bit faster on the uptake.

Watching Thackaberry-as-Nixon impersonating Brezhnev or Golda Meir and Roth-as-Kissinger mimicking Kennedy or Nixon are comic highlights. Kissinger's playing Mao like a Samurai warrior to Nixon, with both speaking in Chinese tongues, is laugh-out-loud funny.

As the last straw, a desperate Nixon wants Kissinger to help him provoke an international crisis in order to preserve his presidency. One of his cockamamie schemes is to send Kissinger to Israel and ask Golda Meir to stir up some incendiary action with one of the neighbors.

Kissinger doesn't think this is the right tactic. Nixon concedes. "A flare-up in the Mideast won't do it; people've gotten used to it," says Nixon, drawing a big laugh.

The ending is very touching. After Kissinger recites the body count under Nixon's watch in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Chile and Kent State, a remorseful Nixon falls to his knees. He seeks God's help in recognizing that sometimes it takes more courage to throw in the towel. "I don't feel like I've done anything wrong," says a bewildered Nixon. "They gave me so much power; why are they surprised I used it?"

It almost makes you feel sorry for the fatally flawed ex-president.

"Nixon's Nixon" is entertaining as well as instructive. I can't imagine a more perfect play on the cusp of an election. Don't miss it.

Caution: Not all "expletives deleted" (R for strong language) 

WHAT: "Nixon's Nixon"

WHERE: Actors' Summit, 86 Owen Brown St., Hudson

WHEN: Through Nov. 9

TICKETS & INFO: 330-342-0800 or www.actorssummit.org <http://www.actorssummit.org/> 

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