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<div align="center" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470048633961_22163" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;"><b id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470048633961_22164" style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal">Rewind To Now</b></div>
<div align="center" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470048633961_22165" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">By Tom Wachunas</div>
<div align="center" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470048633961_22166" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;"> </div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470048633961_22167" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470048633961_22168" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470048633961_22169" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I imagine that to Broadway theater goers in
1960, 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 not
brave commentary on the toxicity of American politics. And now, after seeing it
presented by Seat of the Pants Productions, directed by Craig Joseph at the
Black Box Theater in Glen Oak High School - and coming as it does on the heels
of our national political conventions - I also wonder if those first audiences
could have possibly appreciated the uncanny prescience of Vidal’s vision when
compared to today’s terribly fractious political practices. </div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470048633961_22170" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470048633961_22171" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Set at a contested
nominating convention (of an unnamed party) in, interestingly enough,
Philadelphia, the party’s nomination hangs in the balance as two embattled
candidates wait to see which one the lame-duck president will endorse. All of
the play’s action transpires in the candidates’ respective hotel suites. Some
of the 1960s hot-button issues, back-room deal-brokering, and “scandalous”
behaviors addressed in this story might seem downright ho-hum by today’s
standards, for better or worse. Yet its topicality nonetheless takes on a
palpable new authenticity here.<span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470048633961_22172" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>All eleven
members of director Joseph’s excellent cast are remarkably adept at
articulating the play’s uneasy balance between biting sarcasm and credible
human drama. <span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470048633961_22173" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470048633961_22174" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470048633961_22175" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>There’s a distinct
air of world-weariness to Greg Emanuelson’s portrayal of candidate William
Russell, particularly when he navigates a crisis of conscience late in the
proceedings. He’s a highly educated man of patrician stock who refuses to
pander to public opinion. His penchant for quoting philosophers and writers on
government, morality, and ethics to anyone within earshot is one that his very
meticulous campaign manager, Dick Jensen, regards as a serious liability. In
that role, Matthew Heppe is an excitable yet endearing bundle of nerves as he
attempts to downplay Russell’s overly-brainy sermonizing. </div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470048633961_22176" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470048633961_22177" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Other liabilities
threaten to derail Russell’s bid for the nomination, including his reputation
as a philanderer and its toll on his marriage. Stephanie Cargill has crafted a
remarkably poignant rendering of dignity amid woundedness, tempered with a
detachment both chilling and sad in her role of Mrs. Russell. It’s easy enough
to appreciate her reservations about getting on board with feisty and sardonic
party operative Mrs. Gamadge, played by Margo Parker, who insists with militant
urgency <span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470048633961_22178" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>that Mrs. Russell be always
visible at her husband’s side to inspire women voters.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470048633961_22179" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470048633961_22180" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Conversely, Heidi
Swinford injects a practically lascivious glee to her role of Mabel Cantwell,
the beautiful (and sly, despite her somewhat air-headed demeanor) wife of
Russell’s opponent, Senator Joe Cantwell. She’s an effective poser, and all too
eager to nurture the media feeding-frenzy with her vacuous glad-handing. And
‘eager’ doesn’t begin to adequately describe her husband. As the manipulative
and self-serving Senator Cantwell, Scott Miesse turns in an often riveting
study of intense cupidity surpassed only by his character’s frightening
aptitude for flinging ill-gotten dirt on his opponent. He’s utterly unashamed
to declare that his ends justify his means. </div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470048633961_22181" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470048633961_22182" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470048633961_22183" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Speaking of ends, Bob McCoy brings to his role
of the ailing President Art Hockstader - outgoing in more ways than one – a genuine
sense of existential angst. In his private talks with both candidates, he makes
a big point of asking if they believe in God, perhaps looking to salve the
consequences of his own unbelief and see if there might be an alternative route
to immortality. “The world’s changed since I was politickin’,” he muses at one
point, adding, “In those days you had to pour God over everything, like
ketchup.”</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470048633961_22184" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470048633961_22185" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>That line elicited
a 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 art
of theatre is at its best when it doesn’t remain on the stage after the house
goes dark – that it leaves us with something to chew on beyond the more
ephemeral elements of mere “entertainment”. A take-away of lasting value.
Seeing this play’s indictment of so much wrong in American politics <i id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470048633961_22186" style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">then</i> seems to inexorably point head and
heart to the failures and absurdities of our <i id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470048633961_22187" style="mso-bidi-font-style:
normal">now.</i> </div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470048633961_22188" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470048633961_22189" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>So call it
sermonizing if you will. But I wonder if for too long we’ve made God into an
innocuous condiment. Like ketchup. Maybe he should be the main course. Now <i id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470048633961_22190" style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">that’s </i>a take-away.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470048633961_22193" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">“The Best Man” at the Black Box Theater in GlenOak High
School, 1801 Schneider St. SE, Plain Township (Canton, Ohio) / Shows on Friday
August 5 and Saturday August 6 at 8 p.m., Sunday August<span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470048633961_22194" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>7 at 2 p.m. / Tickets $15 at <span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470048633961_22195" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470048633961_22196" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><a id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470048633961_22197" href="http://www.seatofthepants.eventbrite.com/">http://www.seatofthepants.eventbrite.com/</a>
</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470048633961_22198" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" dir="ltr"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470048633961_22199" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>For other
commentaries by Tom Wachunas on the arts in the greater Canton area, please
visit his blog at <a id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470048633961_22200" href="http://www.artwach.blogspot.com/">http://www.artwach.blogspot.com/</a>
<span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470048633961_22201" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470048633961_22202" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470048633961_22203" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1470048633961_22204" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></div>
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