Perspectives on History

in

Gregory was quoted at length in the February 2009 issue of Perspectives on History, the magazine of the American Historical Association.  Year One of the Empire playwrights Joyce Antler and Elinor Fuchs wrote the article to reflect on the their work with Metropolitan Playhouse in the 2008 production . . .

One of the greatest challenges for the actors was to present their characters sympathetically, even when they disagreed with them. Gregory Jones, who played Henry Cabot Lodge—the “mastermind,” along with Roosevelt, of the “large imperial policy we both desire”—explains that he approached Lodge “as I would Iago or Javert, with the intent of humanizing a character who often seems, on the page, like a black-hearted monster. I tried to remember, first of all, that the bellicosity of Lodge’s Senate speeches likely sprang from his political agenda, not necessarily from the heart of the man. In fact, his letters to TR, while containing the same viewpoints, were much softer and more pragmatic. So two characters emerged, Lodge the witty realist in the private TR scenes, and Lodge the imperialistic demagogue in the Senate scenes. We all play roles in life depending on the context. Lodge played at least two. I played them both in Year One.”

For Greg, a further challenge came in the soldier testimony scene late in the play. With director Alex Roe’s guidance, he realized that imparting information about torture and war crimes could carry greatest power if delivered almost inexpressively, with deliberate lack of “drama.” “So where my Lodge was a weapon of tension with ramrod posture and clipped consonants,” he recalls, “my soldier was a puddle, slouching with his mouth open, almost losing the words in his throat. It was thrilling to play that contrast every night, and to listen to the audience react to descriptions of these atrocities. After two hours of flitting about the stage, the actors became quite still. We drew the audience into that stillness. Then, as we spoke about the water cure, we heard gasping, groaning, weeping ... the things we felt the first time we read the script.” . . .

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photos by Martin Fahrer