There IS Something About A War!

From the cocoon of craziness, a Presidential butterfly has emerged.  It took just one look at “those beautiful babies” for Donald Trump to extol his virtue of “flexibility,” and do what he condemned his predecessor for even contemplating, a direct strike in Syria without Congressional approval.  It was the perfect confluence of opportunity, being able to engage in a low risk strike to deliver a long overdue message to Assad, throwing raw meat to the public thereby looking Presidential to prop up his approval ratings, while burying the Russian election tamping (and Trump’s possible connection) to the back pages of the Internet. A trifecta of fortuity!

Yes, there is nothing like a war.  Even Brian Williams was waxing poetically on MSNBC “we see these beautiful pictures at night from the decks of these two U.S. Navy vessels in the eastern Mediterranean, “I am tempted to quote the great Leonard Cohen: ‘I am guided by the beauty of our weapons.’” 

Oh, the thrill of launched Tomahawks, beautiful to behold!  Stephen Sondheim’s priceless pasquinade “There’s Something about a War” (from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum) says it all. The complete lyrics can be heard in this YouTube link but here is just a small excerpt to make the point. 

….

There’s something about a war.

Something about a war

Something about a war

That makes this little old world all right.

…

A warrior’s work is never done.

He never can get a rest.

There always are lands to overrun

And people to be oppressed.

There’s always a town to pillage

A city to be laid waste.

There’s always a little village

Entirely to be erased.

And citadels to sack, of course,

And temples to attack, of course.

Children to annihilate,

Priestesses to violate…..

Or maybe some of the Village People’s Macho Man lyrics are appropriate in this instance:

You can best believe that he's a macho man

He's the special god son in anybody's land

hey, hey, hey, hey, hey

Macho, macho man

I gotta be a macho man

Macho macho man

Yes let’s all get into the spirit of it.  Not that the Pentagon’s decision (with Trump’s approval) to send the message was the wrong one; something finally had to be done in response to the reported use of chemical weapons, but to get caught up in this one action without having an end game or more importantly a compassionate plan for Syrian refugees, is typical of this chaotic administration. 

Obama tried to involve Congress in the decision to intervene in Syria but the very people now sagely approving the recent attack would not give Obama authority.  Obama, in retrospect, should have just made a preemptive strike without bothering with the Constitution.  He was damned either way.  Trump was already tweeting back in 2013 “The President must get Congressional approval before attacking Syria-big mistake if he does not!”  Or the one which is even more telling is from 2012: “Now that Obama’s poll numbers are in tailspin – watch for him to launch a strike in Libya or Iran. He is desperate.” 

Who’s desperate now? But as we have been conditioned, no real push back on any of this.  He’s flexible! It’s okay!  There is nothing like a war!

Maybe if Trump is constantly exposed to pictures of Syrian children he will reverse his anti-refugee policy, so antithetical to what this nation stands for.  As one Syrian refugee put it:  Who gets to pick their country?

While hiding behind the shield of being a humanitarian, Trump has flexed his “strong man” muscle, even to the delight of some of his naysayers who have been calling him crazy.  One can only hope that he continues to listen to the professionals in the National Security Council.  Give him credit for removing Bannon from the NSC.  One has to be grateful for morsels of sanity.

Trump Ennui

It is bad enough that he is omnipresent like a Cheshire cat on the airways, on line, wherever you turn, but to have him as a “neighbor” as well is pure overload.  I suppose he misses the gold-plated Mar-a-Lago and the opportunity to play on his own golf courses in the sun.  More likely, it is the procession which draws him here, the parade of pomp and preparation, and his brand being brandished.

Days in advance our local newspaper breathlessly announces his highness’ arrival, expectantly and cautionary as it causes total disruption in the area.  This coming visit involves Chinese President XI and his entourage who will be staying at the Eau Palm Beach which used to have the more hotel-like name of Ritz Carlton.  I once stayed there for a big corporate conference myself.  It’s palatial, but I suppose Trump’s Mar-a-Lago gives it a good run for its money.  So you can catch Xi at the Eau. 

Palm Beach County – and in particular Palm Beach itself – will be a traffic nightmare.  Thus far the expense of these numerous Trump visits is borne by the County.  Trump makes a big deal of donating his $78k quarterly salary to the US National Parks Dept, while cutting its parent Department of the Interior’s budget by $2 billion.  According to my math, it’ll take him more than 6,000 years of donating his salary to make up the difference.  Maybe I have an extra zero someplace, or missed a zero as it seems like a VERY long time but if he lasts 6,000 years in office, all the more power to him. It could happen as everything he does is amazing, big time, etc.

He refuses to pick up Palm Beach County’s expense of guarding him so he can play golf in the sunshine.  Perhaps the County’s officials should read “his” Art of the Deal and walk away from the table, go protect yourself, Donald.  It might be the only way they/we can get reimbursement for those expenses.  But the County officials like to delude themselves that as Trump’s visits put Palm Beach County in the limelight that will increase tourism and thus drive tax revenue.  Do you want to visit PBC because Trump is frequently here?  I guess Washington DC’s tourism is on the wane as the star is rarely there on weekends.

I can’t imagine why the Chinese delegation agreed to meet at Mar-a-Lago where Trump can flaunt his ego.  After all, there are very weighty issues to be discussed. Where does one get the idea that these can be easily discussed while teeing off on a golf course?  Why not stay in the White House where there is a bowling alley?  They can discuss the issues while joking about Trump’s 7-10 split.  Trump is a good golfer (my neighbor is one of his pros) and he probably wants to play games he can easily win.  Look at me!

This egomaniacal inexperienced President is now toying with one of the most serious international issues of his presidency, the growing threat of North Korea.  Making statements like, we’ll go it alone if China doesn’t act or Tillerson’s inexplicable dropping of the mike simply saying “the United States has spoken enough about North Korea. We have no further comment," does not exactly inspire confidence.  We’re talking nuclear war here, folks, not jobs for coal-miners.  Not that the latter is unimportant but that is in an industry that is dying because of alternative energy supplies, including natural gas.  It’s going the way horse-drawn carriages when the automobile became dominant.  Focus on the right stuff!

The first 100 days are not yet over but it already seems like 1,000.  There are so many issues that keep me restless at night, day, whenever, the Syrian humanitarian crisis, the impending Korean disaster, decimating environmental budgets and regulations,  the gas lighting of fake news, Russia’s possible interference with the election and the general vulnerability that the Internet and social media create, the continuing inability of Congress to function, the callous consequences of misguided immigration and refugee proposals, impracticable building of a wall in the middle of the Rio Grande river while our Infrastructure is falling apart, tax reform which will inevitably favor the rich including the removal of the inheritance tax, unrealistic border taxes (and extremely difficult to articulate and manage), and I can go on and on, but what’s the sense? 

At mid-term elections I will cast my one vote, if we last that long – given the consequences of the ischemic seizure of our entire governing process and the self-serving dilettantes now at the tiller.  I’ve written often about DJT even though I mightily try to ignore him, my resolve weak due to ongoing embarrassment for our nation and, now, just plain fear. I write as a form of catharsis. 

'Arcadia' – Stoppard’s Intellectual Repartee Reigns at Dramaworks

Tom Stoppard’s masterpiece Arcadia is a play of ideas.  Although the love of learning is a central theme, it explores the dangers of deducing history from tidbits of clues.   Matters of the heart and sexual desire are laid bare, as well as the connectedness of all who have come before and those who will follow, questioning the very fate of the human species.  Conflicting views of free will vs. determinism, chaos vs. predictability are among a dizzying array of concepts explored, and yet the play is basically a farce, laugh out loud at times.  The language is elegant, poetic, and profound, even Shakespearian.

Arcadia is a challenging play to produce and equally challenging to watch, Stoppard asking the best from both sides of the 4^th wall.  If you are willing to let the ideas just flow and not get caught up in the myriad cerebral details, Dramaworks delivers the goods in a remarkable production.

The action takes place in the Coverly’s country home in Derbyshire England, Sidley Park, alternating from scene to scene between the early 19^th and the late 20^th centuries.  One is an age of change as Classical is giving way to Romanticism, only years after the American and French Revolutions.  This part of the play is juxtaposed to the beat of today’s scientific and exploratory pulse.  The 20^th century characters are trying to unravel what happened there nearly 200 years before from remnants of documents and some preconceived assumptions. 

Caitlin Cohn and Ryan Zachary Ward

In 1809 a brilliant 13 year old mathematics and science student, Thomasina Coverly, is being tutored by a gifted young man, Septimus Hodge.  She spurns his preference for Euclidean geometry, seeing instead – way before her time – a more complicated mathematical representation of nature itself.  She also craves a more thorough knowledge of “carnal embrace” as she is cognizant of a number of sexual dalliances happening on the estate.  Both roles are played by actors making their PBD debuts.  Caitlin Cohn is the playful and mercurial young genius Thomasina, who hangs onto every word her tutor utters.  Although Cohn is only in her early 20’s, she is an experienced actor of exceptional talent, craftily mesmerizing the audience. 

Ryan Zachary Ward’s Septimus is an attentive teacher and scholar who never is at a loss for words.  His performance is always riveting, whether he is toying with an adversary or discussing a tryst, and particularly when he delivers a consoling monologue which encapsulates the play’s philosophical foundation, saying to Thomasina “…your lesson book…will be lost when you are old.  We shed as we pick up, like travelers who must carry everything in their arms, and what we let fall will be picked up by those behind.  The procession is very long and life is very short.  We die on the march.  But there is nothing outside the march so nothing can be lost to it….Mathematical discoveries glimpsed and lost to view will have their time again.” 

Caitlin Cohn and Margery Lowe

The estate’s matriarch is Thomasina’s mother, Lady Croom, whose libido as well as her nobility must be indulged.  She is considering her landscape architect’s recommendation to abandon the garden’s classical motif in favor of the increasingly popular romantic, gothic design.  The always dependable PBD veteran, Margery Lowe, plays Lady Croom with an imperiousness befitting the role.

Septimus and Thomasina have three academic counterparts in the 20^th century, each tackling a scholarly endeavor.  There is the caustic Hannah Jarvis, a published author, currently researching the transformation of the estate’s garden, as well as attempting to unravel the mystery of the “hermit of Sidley Park.”  She is in a battle of wits with Bernard Nightingale, a don who has arrived to score what he thinks will be a major scholarly scoop, that the romantic and mystical poet, Lord Byron, was in a duel at the estate and killed a minor poet of the time, Ezra Chater, currently a guest of Lady Croom. We never see Byron on stage although he is an important part of the play.

Peter Simon Hilton and Vanessa Morosco

Peter Simon Hilton who plays Nightingale and Vanessa Morosco as Hannah are also making their PBD debuts.  They are husband and wife who have played opposite one another in many other productions, and they reveal that edge of familiarity, delivering Stoppard’s barbed dialogue to perfection.  Their acerbic and competitive sparring is delectable and their performances outstanding.

The 20^th century estate is still in the Coverly family.  Valentine Coverly, generations removed from Thomasina, is the mathematical sleuth, frequently asked by Hannah to interpret the shreds of evidence from the past.  He too is involved in research, centering on the estate’s grouse population revealed in the records kept in the family Game books, “his true inheritance…two hundred years of real data on a plate.”  He views this data as fodder for chaos theory, another dominant theme of the play, life moving from order to disorder.  Hannah asks to what end?  “I publish,” he says and Hannah amusingly replies, “Of course.  Sorry, Jolly good.”  Valentine is played by Britt Michael Gordon (his PBD debut as well) with a breathless enthusiasm as well as a deepening frustration explaining the complexity of the mathematical concepts, all the while hoping to seduce Hannah. 

Dispassionate Hannah, while rejecting the romantic advances of both Valentine and Bernard, focuses on the garden of that era, calling it "the Gothic novel expressed in landscape.  Everything but vampires."    As to the hermit, she says "He's my peg for the breakdown of the Romantic imagination... the whole Romantic sham….It's what happened to the Enlightenment, isn't it? A century of intellectual rigor turned in on itself. A mind in chaos suspected of genius. In a setting of cheap thrills and fake beauty... The decline from thinking to feeling, you see."

Morosco emphatically delivers a key takeaway for the audience as Hannah says to Valentine, “It’s all trivial – your grouse, my hermit, Bernard’s Byron. Comparing what we’re looking for misses the point.  It’s the wanting to know that makes us matter. Otherwise we’re going out the way we came in.”

Among the farcical hilarity of the 19^th century sexual dalliances are those of Charity Chater who we never see on stage.  Veteran PBD actor Cliff Burgess plays the undistinguished poet, her dandy husband, Ezra, to perfection as he hopelessly and hilariously tries to defend his wife’s “honor,” challenging Septimus Hodge to a duel, demanding “satisfaction.”  This leads to an irresistibly quotable retort by Septimus, delivered by Ryan Zachary Ward with precise comic timing: “Mrs. Chater demanded satisfaction and now you are demanding satisfaction.  I cannot spend my time day and night satisfying the demands of the Chater family.” 

Captain Brice, Lady Croom’s brother, is yet another paramour of Mrs. Chater who finally sweeps her off her feet and takes her, as well as her husband to the West Indies.  Brice is haughtily played with righteous indignation by Gary Cadwallader, who is also PBD’s Director of Education and Community Engagement.

Finally, the two halves of the play come together, with both the 19^th century and the 20^th century casts on stage at the same time, talking over one another, sometimes turning pages of books in tandem, but never interacting.  One thinks of Valentine’s statement earlier in the play, “The unpredictable and the predetermined unfold together to make everything the way it is,” as two couples, one from each century, waltz on stage.  After such an intellectual exercise, these are the tender, loving moments the audience has longed for.  Stoppard saves the best for last.

Veteran PBD director, J. Barry Lewis, had a vision which prevails throughout the play and can be appreciated by his deft handling of his talented cast.  As he said, “Symbolism is significant in the work but if it eclipses the reality that would be a failure.  It must be about human nature and the unpredictability of love. How do we filter out the noise that encroaches on our lives to find the truth?”

Arcadia Scenic Design by Anne Mundell

Lewis has been aided by an outstanding team of collaborators.  The scenic design is by Ann Mundell, her PBD debut.  Her ethereal set is a marvel to admire, representing both the classical and romantic elements.  There are French glass doors to the garden and two solid doors on each side, perfect for slamming, fast entering and exiting, as in a traditional British farce.  The monochromatic set has led veteran Brian O'Keefe’s costume designs to showcase his creativity and skill, as he said, “to develop costumes which do not disappear into the set on the one hand, but not have them be so bold that they stand out too much.” They are of course period appropriate, easily taken for granted as they so perfectly match the characters’ personalities.

Donald Edmund Thomas’ lighting design shows no distinction between the two time periods, further reinforcing connectivity.  Sound design by Steve Shapiro has incorporated the requisite barking dog, gun shots from the outdoors, and as piano music figures prominently in the play, some classical piano during the 19^th century scenes, transitioning to more modern, yet still a classical feel for the 20^th century.  He even dramatically clues us into the first such change by a very conspicuous roar, presumably a jet plane.

It is a large cast.  Stoppard knows how to draw distinctive, passionate characters and everyone is spot on.  In addition to those already mentioned are Dan Leonard as Jellaby, the 19^th century butler who facilitates gossip, James Andreassi as Richard Noakes (PBD debut), the dashing landscape architect who is always trying to placate Lady Croom’s whims, Arielle Fishman, a flirtatious Chloë Coverly (PBD debut), Valentine’s sister who thinks sex might impact chaos theory, and Casey Butler playing two roles, Augustus, Thomasina’s bratty older brother as well as Valentine and Chloë’s mute brother, Gus.

Widely acclaimed as one of the greatest intellectual plays of the 20^th century, Arcadia is brought vividly to life by Dramaworks, characters dancing at the end “…till there’s no time left.  That’s what time means.”