Farragut North
Reviewed by Deborah Klugman
Foursome Productions at Theatre 68 Arts Complex
Thru November 5
Before becoming a playwright and screenwriter, Beau Willimon worked as a political operative, toiling behind the scenes on the campaigns of Chuck Schumer, Hilary Clinton, Bill Bradley and Howard Dean. Willimon left politics in 2004, subsequently translating his experiences as a ringside player in Washington into plays, film and TV, most notably the long-running and enormously popular Netflix series House of Cards. An offshoot of writer Andrew Davies’ British original, the series was brilliantly illustrative of the ruthless quest for power that drives so many politicians and the aides who surround them.
But before House of Cards, which premiered in 2013, Willimon wrote Farragut North, now being revived at Theatre 68 under the direction of Peter Allas. Written when Willimon was a playwriting student at Juilliard, it likewise depicts the down-and-dirty shenanigans practiced among those in politics for whom winning is all. Its central character, press secretary Stephen Bellamy (Chris King Wong), is a political wunderkind; only 25 years old, he’s already made a name for himself as a brilliant strategist who takes pride in the manipulative ruses he devises to gain points for his candidate. That candidate at the moment is a Governor Morris (whom we never meet) who is jockeying to be the Democratic nominee for president and appears to be ahead.
Stephen’s colleagues include his boss, campaign manager Paul Zara (Michael Rubenstone), and his assistant Ben (K. J. Powell), toward whom the self-centered Stephen is tellingly dismissive. Paul’s counterpart for the other team, Tom Duffy (Jack Esformes), like Paul and Stephen, is a take-no-prisoners kind of guy, while the person keeping an eye on them all is an assertive New York Times journalist, Ida Horowitz (Amy Motta). The other significant character in the story is a 19-year-old intern, Molly (Camryn Hamm), a smart, incredibly worldly-wise-for-her-age young woman with whom Stephen is having a fling. And in the background (representing the rest of us) is a waiter (David Edward-Reyes) working double shifts — the only person in the story who actually cares about the issues in the election.
For Stephen, at the top of his game, all appears to be running smoothly until a cryptic call from Duffy upends everything.
Titled after a D.C. metro stop located in the lobbyist section of town, Farragut North doesn’t feature quite the same bite I imagine it might have had when it premiered in 2008. Overshadowed in the realm of drama by six seasons of House of Cards, with their greater breadth and complexity, its portrayal of chicanery has also been somewhat eclipsed by the malignant specter of Donald Trump, and his successful prosecution, since 2015, of our shared idea of truth. Director Allas tips his hat to that notion by running a pre-show photographic retrospective of our past presidents (for history buffs, most engaging), but leaves off after Obama, as if to deny Trump’s legitimacy as president (I won’t quibble) or infer that the play’s themes, applicable to that point, are now moot.
Still, the piece remains relevant as a study of thwarted ambition. The production’s central misfiring lies in the casting of Wong. In his first role on stage (ever), Wong delivers a diligent disciplined performance, with crucial moments assiduously played — but the effusiveness and volubility so integral to his role do not come across as native to him. As the persistent journalist, hungry for a story, Motta requires a keener edge. Powell as the still uncorrupted Ben and Edward-Reyes as the hopeful waiter project what’s needed. Rubenstone is suitably cast as a seasoned campaign honcho, but it’s Esformes as the conniving amoral Duffy who snags for us the incontrovertibly soulless essence of that profession.
The most arresting performance of the evening is Hamm’s vibrant and truthful rendering of Molly the intern — a gal, still in her teens, with more real-life intelligence in her being than every other character combined.
The production (technical direction by Matt Richter) also is soundly staged. As director, Allas keeps the pace brisk and the actors’ movements on point. The videography — a series of apt images projected onto the back wall (video and set design by Allas) — compensates neatly for the set’s modest furnishings, conjuring when necessary an opulent hotel room or a dingy café.
Theatre 68 Arts Complex – The Rosalie, 5112 Lankershim Blvd. N. Hollywood. Thurs.-Sat., 8 pm, Sun. 3 pm; thru Nov. 5. www.onstage411.com/farragutn Running time: two hours and 10 minutes with an intermission.
