History Lessons,
With Song and Dance
By
WILBORN HAMPTON
Published: March 7, 2008
Before the start of “Year One of the Empire,” the cast
assembles onstage and sings “The Star-Spangled Banner.” At the end of
the anthem you half expect an umpire to shout, “Play ball!” What
follows, however, is an enlightening, entertaining and at times
engrossing dramatized survey of America’s coming of imperialistic age
at the turn of the 20th century.
The play, by Elinor Fuchs and Joyce Antler, and staged by Metropolitan
Playhouse, makes it clear that the country’s politicians and generals
haven’t learned a lot in the last hundred years.
Written at the height of the national anguish over the Vietnam
War and published in 1973, “Empire” begins with an account of American
expansion in the Caribbean and Pacific under President William
McKinley, following the sinking of the U.S.S. Maine in 1898 and the war
with Spain. In quick succession, the United States annexed Hawaii,
Puerto Rico and Guam and paid Spain $20 million for the Philippines.
The ensuing two acts recount the bitter Senate fight over a
peace treaty that gave the Philippines to the United States, and pitted
Andrew Carnegie and
the Anti-Imperialist League against those who saw American expansion as
a “moral mandate,” and a Senate investigation into charges that
American soldiers committed atrocities against ordinary Filipinos in
fighting an insurgency there. The Senate debate is eerily similar to
those conducted over the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and, more recently,
the invasion of Iraq. The hearings hauntingly echo those that followed
My Lai and Abu Ghraib.
Ms. Fuchs, a professor of dramaturgy, and Ms. Antler, a
professor of American studies, took their material from documents of
the time, and the Senate debates can take on the tediousness of, well,
a Senate debate. The play is not without comic relief, however, even
beyond the inherent inanities of politicians and pundits, and there are
period songs and dancing, reminiscent of those in Joan Littlewood’s
“Oh! What a Lovely War.” The direction by Alex Roe, who at one recent
performance stepped in for an indisposed cast member and performed
admirably, keeps the action flowing smoothly.
A fine cast of 10 plays more than 40 different characters and makes
each one distinct. Michael Durkin is splendid as President McKinley and
a bartender named Dooley, among other roles, and Michael Hardart is
bully as Teddy Roosevelt. David Patrick Ford, Gregory Jones, John
Tobias and J. M. McDonough are all excellent in a variety of roles.
Year
One
of
the
Empire Covers 50 Years of History, Feels Longer
Metropolitan Playhouse offers a
non-thriller in Manila
By Tatyana Gershkovich Tuesday,
Mar
18
2008
Year One of the Empire, staged by the Metropolitan
Playhouse, may bring back memories of your high-school history teacher.
Not the cool one with the hands-on projects, but the one who made you
stay up late memorizing the names of who-cares suffragettes and the
exact dates of the Crimean War (1853-56).
Written entirely in language taken from original documents
(letters, articles, and dispatches from the Philippine-American War),
the piece replays 50 years of American involvement in the
Philippines in a mere two hours. Unfortunately, the two hours feel
like 50 years. Elinor Fuchs
and Joyce Antler,
who co-wrote the script during the Vietnam War,
intended their work to demonstrate how quickly the brutal lessons of
history are forgotten. But the themes of the play—the atrocities of
war, political folly, and imperial ambition—fail to resonate because
they're buried beneath the rubble of dates, facts, and trivia.
The performance is best when civilians Mr. Dooley (Michael
Durkin) and Mr. Hennessey (Mikel
Sarah Lambert) deliver some much-needed comic relief ("I can't
annex [the Philippines]. I don't even know where they are!"). But these
scenes aren't enough to counteract the monotony of multiple
re-enactments of Senate debates and Michael
Hardart's blaring Teddy
Roosevelt, which leave you staring at the clock waiting for the
bell to ring.
