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<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:5.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:
5.0pt;margin-left:0in;page-break-after:avoid;text-autospace:none'><b><font
size=6 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:24.0pt;font-weight:bold'>‘Nixon’s
Nixon’ is biting, funny political satire<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:5.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:
5.0pt;margin-left:0in;text-autospace:none'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>Published: Friday, October 31, 2008 1:18 AM EDT <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:5.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:
5.0pt;margin-left:0in;text-autospace:none'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>Reviewed by FRAN HELLER<br>
Contributing Writer<br>
<br>
Karl Marx said, “History repeats itself – first as tragedy, second
as farce.”<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:5.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:
5.0pt;margin-left:0in;text-autospace:none'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>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’ <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Summit</st1:place></st1:City>
through Nov. 9.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.”<br>
<br>
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 <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lincoln</st1:place></st1:City>,
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>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.<br>
<br>
As the two men jockey for the upper hand, Nixon forces a reluctant Kissinger to
re-enact their foreign policy triumphs, including détente with <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Russia</st1:country-region>, opening up <st1:country-region w:st="on">China</st1:country-region>,
and ending the war in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Vietnam</st1:country-region></st1:place>.
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.<br>
<br>
As the bespectacled Kissinger, Roth’s German accent is subtle without
being overdone. Thackaberry’s phony grin is a dead ringer for Nixon.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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 <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region></st1:place>
and ask Golda Meir to stir up some incendiary action with one of the neighbors.<br>
<br>
Kissinger doesn’t think this is the right tactic. Nixon concedes.
“A flare-up in the <st1:place w:st="on">Mideast</st1:place> won’t
do it; people’ve gotten used to it,” says Nixon, drawing a big
laugh.<br>
<br>
The ending is very touching. After Kissinger recites the body count under
Nixon’s watch in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Vietnam</st1:country-region>,
<st1:country-region w:st="on">Cambodia</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Laos</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Chile</st1:country-region>
and <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Kent</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">State</st1:PlaceName></st1:place>, 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?”<br>
<br>
It almost makes you feel sorry for the fatally flawed ex-president.<br>
<br>
“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.<br>
<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Caution: Not all “expletives
deleted” (R for strong language) </span></b><br>
<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>WHAT: </span></b>“Nixon’s
Nixon”<b><span style='font-weight:bold'><br>
<br>
WHERE: </span></b>Actors’ <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Summit</st1:City></st1:place>,
<st1:address w:st="on"><st1:Street w:st="on">86 Owen Brown St.</st1:Street>, <st1:City
w:st="on">Hudson</st1:City></st1:address><b><span style='font-weight:bold'><br>
<br>
WHEN</span></b>: Through Nov. 9<b><span style='font-weight:bold'><br>
<br>
TICKETS & INFO:</span></b> 330-342-0800 or <a
href="http://www.actorssummit.org/">www.actorssummit.org</a></span></font><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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