Amanda Karr and Noah Wagner (Photo by James Rice)
Reviewed by Martín Hernández
Long Beach Playhouse
Through January 19
RECOMMENDED
More a glorified Q&A than a serviceable play, writer Mark Whicker’s one-act presents us with a diminished Ted Turner (Noah Wagner), the once renowned, reviled and still living cable news tycoon, now reduced to a hermetic life after being diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia in 2018. While it is hard to sympathize with a billionaire’s hardships — even one with a debilitating disease – Whicker lionizes the CNN founder whose flamboyance, riverboat gambler instincts, and passions for women, wealth, and world peace fed his oversized ego. Turner makes for an intriguing character, much like the fictitious media baron of Citizen Kane, one not to be revered so much as to serve as a case study for capitalist megalomania.
Ensconced at his secluded — and huge — Montana ranch, Turner is being visited by a cryptic and anonymous Interlocutor (Amanda Karr) who interrogates him about his life. Is she a journalist looking for a scoop, a nurse testing his faltering memory, a new lover determining his fidelity? That conundrum is eventually revealed as Turner pontificates about his past, from his successes to his failures. Turner answers the Interlocutor’s questions with his trademark loquaciousness, a trait that often got him into hot water, which he readily and humorously. There is also room for self-deprecation, especially when he discusses his relationships, from the commercial to the romantic — from his apparently favorite ex-wife Jane Fonda to a host of other liaisons. Turner also ruminates on his love for the sea and nature and, as an avid sailor not above subterfuge to win a regatta, regales in his buccaneer image.
“I’m really Scarlett O’Hara,” Turner happily admits to his inquisitive guest as she guesses what character from Turner’s favorite movie he most resembles (He finds Scarlett a kindred spirit in her tenacity in challenging adversity.). And despite Turner’s boisterous façade, he reveals does reveal snippets from his past that counter this impudent image. Dismissing the thought that trauma shapes anyone’s life, he nonetheless discloses the emotional scarring brought on by an abusive and alcoholic father and by his younger sister’s early death. While he hates being alone, he also cannot truly get close to others.
Wagner and Kerr rise above the limits of the text and, under James Rice’s yeomanlike direction, present an engaging and credible relationship. Kerr holds her own in a role that, for the most part, is a sounding board for Turner’s ruminations, recriminations, and regrets. Her Interlocutor offers a sympathetic ear as well as critical voice to Turner’s more grandiose pronouncements. Whether extolling the virtues of the bison on his land or recounting his own virtues and foibles, Wagner’s Turner is nothing if not colorful. Balancing an outer rowdiness with an inner turmoil, he touchingly professes the mantra he lives by in all his life encounters, from hits to misses — one that serves as wise advice even if one is not a billionaire: “Tomorrow is another day.”
Long Beach Playhouse Studio Theater, 5021 East Anaheim St., Long Beach. Fri.-Sat., 8 pm, Sun., 2 pm; thru Jan. 19. www.LBPlayhouse.org. Running time 70 minutes with no intermission
