Backstage
March 21, 2008
by Ron Cohen
Portraying in detail the United States' prolonged war against Filipino insurgents at the turn of the 20th century, Year One of the Empire is a vivid and all-too-relevant history lesson. The U.S. took over the Philippines as a result of the Spanish-American War in 1898. The play's authors -- Elinor Fuchs, a professor at Yale School of Drama, and historian Joyce Antler -- mark these events as the start of an empire-building foreign policy for America.
In a program note, they say that except for "the occasional exclamation and question, needed for continuity," none of the script's language is invented, all of it coming from various published and unpublished sources. They were drawn to the subject during the Vietnam War; the play was first published in 1973. But parallels to Iraq are startling as citizens, politicians, and military argue over the conflict in the Philippines, taking sides as imperialists and anti-imperialists. Racism and hypocrisy discomfortingly mark much of the debate.
Distinguishing the production from an episode on the History Channel are director Alex Roe's theatrical savvy and the passion and conviction of his 11 actors. With impressive cameos and deft shifts in characterizations, they bring to life in a fast-moving montage more than 40 named characters plus numerous anonymous reporters, clerks, and others. Among the leading personalities are Michael Hardart's energetically bellicose Theodore Roosevelt and Gregory Jones' smug Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, both effectively stopping short of caricature. As William McKinley, Michael Durkin tellingly reveals the doubts behind the politician's bluster. There's equally fine work throughout, and, in a sterling demonstration of equal-opportunity casting, the company's three women enact male characters with assurance.
In one particularly affecting sequence, U.S. soldiers tell of atrocities inflicted on suspected insurgents. There's considerable mention of the "water cure," a precursor of water boarding. In the intimate confines of Off-Off-Broadway this show may be preaching to the choir, but it's an instructive and engrossing sermon.
photo by Tracy Lantz
Presented by and at Metropolitan Playhouse,
220A E. Fourth St., NYC.
March 7-30. Thu.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.
(212) 995-5302 or www.metropolitanplayhouse.org.
Gregory Jones
