[NEohioPAL] REVIEW: "The Best Man" in Canton

[Tom Wachunas via NEohioPAL]

 Rewind To NowBy Tom Wachunas      I imagine that to Broadway theater goers in1960, or film viewers in 1964, Gore Vidal’s “The Best Man” must have seemed,despite its funny moments amid unguarded cynicism, a searing and candid if notbrave commentary on the toxicity of American politics. And now, after seeing itpresented by Seat of the Pants Productions, directed by Craig Joseph at theBlack Box Theater in Glen Oak High School - and coming as it does on the heelsof our national political conventions - I also wonder if those first audiencescould have possibly appreciated the uncanny prescience of Vidal’s vision whencompared to today’s terribly fractious political practices.     Set at a contestednominating convention (of an unnamed party) in, interestingly enough,Philadelphia, the party’s nomination hangs in the balance as two embattledcandidates wait to see which one the lame-duck president will endorse. All ofthe play’s action transpires in the candidates’ respective hotel suites. Someof the 1960s hot-button issues, back-room deal-brokering, and “scandalous”behaviors addressed in this story might seem downright ho-hum by today’sstandards, for better or worse. Yet its topicality nonetheless takes on apalpable new authenticity here.  All elevenmembers of director Joseph’s excellent cast are remarkably adept atarticulating the play’s uneasy balance between biting sarcasm and crediblehuman drama.     There’s a distinctair of world-weariness to Greg Emanuelson’s portrayal of candidate WilliamRussell, particularly when he navigates a crisis of conscience late in theproceedings. He’s a highly educated man of patrician stock who refuses topander to public opinion. His penchant for quoting philosophers and writers ongovernment, morality, and ethics to anyone within earshot is one that his verymeticulous campaign manager, Dick Jensen, regards as a serious liability. Inthat role, Matthew Heppe is an excitable yet endearing bundle of nerves as heattempts to downplay Russell’s overly-brainy sermonizing.    Other liabilitiesthreaten to derail Russell’s bid for the nomination, including his reputationas a philanderer and its toll on his marriage. Stephanie Cargill has crafted aremarkably poignant rendering of dignity amid woundedness, tempered with adetachment both chilling and sad in her role of Mrs. Russell. It’s easy enoughto appreciate her reservations about getting on board with feisty and sardonicparty operative Mrs. Gamadge, played by Margo Parker, who insists with militanturgency  that Mrs. Russell be alwaysvisible at her husband’s side to inspire women voters.    Conversely, HeidiSwinford injects a practically lascivious glee to her role of Mabel Cantwell,the beautiful (and sly, despite her somewhat air-headed demeanor) wife ofRussell’s opponent, Senator Joe Cantwell. She’s an effective poser, and all tooeager to nurture the media feeding-frenzy with her vacuous glad-handing. And‘eager’ doesn’t begin to adequately describe her husband. As the manipulativeand self-serving Senator Cantwell, Scott Miesse turns in an often rivetingstudy of intense cupidity surpassed only by his character’s frighteningaptitude for flinging ill-gotten dirt on his opponent. He’s utterly unashamedto declare that his ends justify his means.     Speaking of ends, Bob McCoy brings to his roleof the ailing President Art Hockstader - outgoing in more ways than one – a genuinesense of existential angst. In his private talks with both candidates, he makesa big point of asking if they believe in God, perhaps looking to salve theconsequences of his own unbelief and see if there might be an alternative routeto immortality. “The world’s changed since I was politickin’,” he muses at onepoint, adding, “In those days you had to pour God over everything, likeketchup.”    That line eliciteda particularly hearty (and nervous?) laugh from the audience on opening night(July 29), and has lingered with me ever since. I’ve always found that the artof theatre is at its best when it doesn’t remain on the stage after the housegoes dark – that it leaves us with something to chew on beyond the moreephemeral elements of mere “entertainment”. A take-away of lasting value.Seeing this play’s indictment of so much wrong in American politics then seems to inexorably point head andheart to the failures and absurdities of our now.    So call itsermonizing if you will. But I wonder if for too long we’ve made God into aninnocuous condiment. Like ketchup. Maybe he should be the main course. Now that’s a take-away.“The Best Man” at the Black Box Theater in GlenOak HighSchool, 1801 Schneider St. SE, Plain Township (Canton, Ohio) / Shows on FridayAugust 5 and Saturday August 6 at 8 p.m., Sunday August  7 at 2 p.m. / Tickets $15 at   http://www.seatofthepants.eventbrite.com/   For othercommentaries by Tom Wachunas on the arts in the greater Canton area, pleasevisit his blog at http://www.artwach.blogspot.com/    
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