Photo by Carol Rosegg
Amid the torrent of words that pour out of the two law clerks whose very loudly proclaimed opposing views immediately mark them as a love match in A More Perfect Union, playwright Vern Thiessen has forgotten to include any genuine emotions. Why, exactly, do Jewish conservative Maddie (Melissa Friedman) and African-American liberal James (Godfrey L. Simmons, Jr.) fall for one another in the secluded stacks of the Supreme Court library? Both are ambitious outsiders in their predominately white male workplace, but after scenes of their verbal battles, all of a sudden they start talking about love.
Maybe James and Maddie were merely charmed by one another’s self-conscious verbal tics; James repeatedly offers Maddie food with a simple “Some?” and Maddie reflexively jams “y’know” into the middle of her sentences. Thiessen finds these phrases so illuminating (or just plain funny) that he sprinkles them liberally throughout his script, in between writing facile arguments between James and Maddie about evergreen hot-button issues like race, the death penalty and abortion.
As the quarreling clerks, Friedman and Simmons, Jr. both have charm and talent to spare, but most of it is squandered on trying to make two boring, abrasive characters interesting. And though director Ron Russell has tried to give the illusion that this play is about more than endless jabbering, his efforts to bring them down from the set’s main platform don’t really make sense, giving us Friedman pacing up and down directly in front of the audience while arguing hypothetical cases.
But Thiessen makes his play feel oddly dated by trying to tie “A Message” to his flimsy rom-com premise. In the age of Obama, when was the last time anyone had a really rousing debate about the death penalty? Why not write a political play that takes the same risks that Maddie and James hubristically take themselves in an effort to make the Supreme Court better? And while Maddie resolutely defends a woman’s right to have an abortion, like Juno before her, she chooses to not. Perhaps dragging abortion into a play to prove a point (or provide some cheap conflict) is easier than attempting a messier take on the consequences of having one.
A high school group outnumbered the paying patrons at the matinee I attended, which casts a whole new light on the show. Written in bold outlines, with school-sanctioned “controversial” talking points like abortion, A More Perfect Union is a prime example of a cool teacher trying to grab his civics or theater students’ attention. As for me, I just wanted to abort.
Through June 7, 13th Street Theatre, 136 E. 13th St. (at 3rd Ave.), 212-352-3101; times vary, $37.50.
Maybe James and Maddie were merely charmed by one another’s self-conscious verbal tics; James repeatedly offers Maddie food with a simple “Some?” and Maddie reflexively jams “y’know” into the middle of her sentences. Thiessen finds these phrases so illuminating (or just plain funny) that he sprinkles them liberally throughout his script, in between writing facile arguments between James and Maddie about evergreen hot-button issues like race, the death penalty and abortion.
As the quarreling clerks, Friedman and Simmons, Jr. both have charm and talent to spare, but most of it is squandered on trying to make two boring, abrasive characters interesting. And though director Ron Russell has tried to give the illusion that this play is about more than endless jabbering, his efforts to bring them down from the set’s main platform don’t really make sense, giving us Friedman pacing up and down directly in front of the audience while arguing hypothetical cases.
But Thiessen makes his play feel oddly dated by trying to tie “A Message” to his flimsy rom-com premise. In the age of Obama, when was the last time anyone had a really rousing debate about the death penalty? Why not write a political play that takes the same risks that Maddie and James hubristically take themselves in an effort to make the Supreme Court better? And while Maddie resolutely defends a woman’s right to have an abortion, like Juno before her, she chooses to not. Perhaps dragging abortion into a play to prove a point (or provide some cheap conflict) is easier than attempting a messier take on the consequences of having one.
A high school group outnumbered the paying patrons at the matinee I attended, which casts a whole new light on the show. Written in bold outlines, with school-sanctioned “controversial” talking points like abortion, A More Perfect Union is a prime example of a cool teacher trying to grab his civics or theater students’ attention. As for me, I just wanted to abort.
Through June 7, 13th Street Theatre, 136 E. 13th St. (at 3rd Ave.), 212-352-3101; times vary, $37.50.
