WE THE PEOPLE. To 6 October.
London
WE THE PEOPLE
by Eric Schlosser.
Shakespeare’s Globe In rep to 6 October 2007.
22,29 Sept, 2 October 7.30pm Mat 23,30 Sept 1pm, 13 Sept, 3 Oct 2pm.
Runs 2hr 50min One interval.
TICKETS: 020 7401 9919/020 7087 7398.
www.shakespeares-globe.org
Review: Timothy Ramsden 9 September.
How to build a nation in four uneasy months.
Three Presidents might have been running America if Mark Antony and Octavius Caesar had got on better. So suggests Eric Schlosser’s new account of the framing of the US Constitution. Schlosser isn’t creating Braveheart US; his Philadelphia story isn’t one of glorious revolution but of dealing with discontent as it’s realised new rulers can be oppressive as the old, without the grace even to be foreign.
Thirteen former colonies, nestling down North America’s east coast, vied with their different interests, even printing their own currency. That’s no way to co-exist, so in 1787 they met in Philadelphia to devise a national civil contract.
For weeks there wasn’t even a quorum. And the representatives (here, under half of the historical 55) democratically covered all types of wealthy, educated men, from scoundrels to the highly-regarded George Washington; men of intelligence and integrity like Benjamin Franklin to the stolid Sherman, who says little in a vast manner.
Sitting secretly with closed windows and doors in stifling summer heat, they argued exhaustively. In the end they even had to fudge the significance of their signatures.
The greatest and the best failed. Christopher Godwin’s dignified Mason, unwilling participant from the start, walked out before the end as there was no Bill of Rights. John Bett’s brilliant Franklin couldn’t end slavery, while his anthem to older women in an evening drinking session is undermined by his eyes’ magnetic attraction to young serving-woman Eliza. The resounding words of the eventual Constitution were penned by a supercilious youngster.
Some scenes outside the Convention room add little. And the Black visitors are almost haloed into saintliness. But Schlosser tracks the unglamorous process, with often unglamorous people, that constructs, through multiple frustrations, a workable compromise. And it’s fascinating to hear the balance between state and States argued out, or that slavery might have been outlawed, issues whose embers would ignite later in Civil War.
Size apart, the Globe isn’t friendly to this play – an open-air theatre for scenes in a tight-shut room. But the dynamics of the apparent inactivity are fascinating, if a busman’s holiday for any practised committee member.
Edmund Randolph/Jacob Whitworth: Benjamin Askew.
Benjamin Franklin: John Bett.
James Madison: Robert Bowman.
William Pierce: Jonathan Broke.
William Jackson: Michael Brown.
Timothy Matlack/Elbridge Gerry: Joe Caffrey.
William Paterson/Luther Martin: Ramon Camin.
Mary King: Seroca Davis.
George Mason: Christopher Godwin.
Nicholas Gilman: Colm Gormley.
Gouverneur Morris: Trystan Gravelle.
Absalom Jones: Kobna Holdbrook-Smith.
Sally Bache: Cush Jumbo.
Alexander Hamilton: William Mannering.
Charles Pinckney/Gunning Bedford/John Mason/Lucas Smith: David Oakes.
Sarah Trumball: Rhiannon Oliver.
Daniel Shays/James Wilson: Paul Rider.
Robert Morris: Frank Scantori.
George Washington: John Stahl.
Eliza Trist: Michelle Terry.
Major General Sheppard/Roger Sherman: Andrew Vincent.
John Rutledge/ Sheriff Porter: Thomas Wheatley.
Hugh Williamson: Richard Ward.
Field Slaves: Oklayinka Giwa, Lawrence Thompson.
Director: Charlotte Westenra.
Designer: Paul Wills.
Composer: Adrian Lee.
Musical Director: Corrina Silvester.
Choreographer: Lynne Page.
Movement: Glynn MacDonald.
Voice coach: Penny Dyer.
Fight director: Kevin McCurdy.
Assistant director: Henry Bell.
2007-09-12 11:49:04