Political theater | Play On Milwaukee

by Jeff Grygny

“We should have won—in fact, we did win.” With this oxymoronic sentence, the 45th president opened his 60 odd days of counterfactual and highly illegal gambits to retain the power he’d been voted out of. He failed, only because of a small corps of officials who were unwilling to play along. But there were many who were all too willing—and that is the story of Red, White, and Coup, a gripping, 2 1/2 hour spectacle by Quasimondo Physical Theatre, created to coincide with that same person’s re-anointment as Republican candidate, right here in the “horrible” city of Milwaukee. This an important work of theater, performed with artistry and integrity. Everyone should see this show, as a clear reminder of the enormity of DJT and cohort’s actions, with the fate of the nation, the world, the planet, even, seemingly at stake. It’s all too much—but the intrepid company rises to the occasion.

Director/playwright Brian Rott spent six months researching the January 6th Select Senate committee hearings, plus memoirs and accounts by the men and women close to the action, to dramatize and illuminate the news we all read about. It plays like a Greek tragedy with evil clowns: there’s a grinding sense of inevitability, and yet we can’t look away. Guided by accounts from William Barr, Mike Pence, Cassidy Hutchinson, and others, Rott brings each scene to vivid life. All the familiar players make their appearances, from the “My Pillow guy” to the con man in chief. Even Wisconsin’s plutocratic Senator Ron Johnson gets in on the act.

The first hour of the play details DJT’s response to Biden’s win: complete denial, ordering scores of spurious lawsuits. We meet Rudy Giuliani and Sydney Powell, the only lawyers deranged enough to buy into the idea at the beginning. Later, we see law professor John Eastman concoct the infamous “alternative elector” scheme. Eventually, Attorney General Barr’s refuses to declare the election stolen, leading to his resignation (and not being invited to the White House Christmas party). We witness Mike Pence’s agonizing between his duty to the president and his loyalty to the constitution.

Legal maneuvers, even scurrilous ones, don’t exactly lend themselves to compelling theater, but Rott knows the power of re-enacting it all. He brings even this uninspiring material to life with creative flourishes, surreal comedy, and the impressive talents of 7 dedicated actors playing over 50 characters. The characterizations rarely rise above the level of caricature. It’s like watching an extended political cartoon: they don’t tell us who these people are; they simply show us what they documentedly did. And it works. With a few mannerisms and costume pieces, we see Powell as a leopard-clad loony; Eastman as a wild-eyed mad scientist; Pence as a stiff board (no great leap there), with his conscience imagined, like Pinocchio’s Jiminy Cricket, as the infamous fly that sat on Pence’s head during the debate.

The most powerful scene departs from the legal record to give attention to some of the capitol rioters—still cartoons, but drawn with compassion. We hear some of their voices: middle-class people whom the system has failed, for whom the term “white privilege” can be nothing but a cruel insult. In a brilliant use of visual language, a masked figure with the letter Q on his face sits at the presidential desk typing, typing: lies and incitements, while the people’s rage grows. When DJT issues his invitation to a big rally in Washington DC. It’s like dropping a match on a pool of carefully-poured gasoline.

The staging of the riot is visceral and terrifying, with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer cowering behind a podium while zip-tie man calls out “Nancy, come out and play,” like a horror movie psychopath. Cassidy Hutchinson’s account takes us right into the White House, including her being creepily groped by Giuliani as a factotum stands by grinning. Melania and Ivanka make their cameos, and finally, we hear DJT’s message to the rioters:“We love you, you’re very special.”

The actors give every role a sense of urgency and humanity, rarely stooping to outright villianization (DJT and Barr share a wicked laugh over putting immigrant children in cages, but that’s about the extent of the judgment offered). Cat Sadler does a mean Mitch McConnell impression; Emily Scholtka brings a bewildered pathos to Jacob Chansley, the Q Anon Shaman; Mara Grigg gives the roles of Giuliani and Ted Cruz gleeful energy; A heartful Matt Koehn shows us Pence’s ethical crisis; Selena Milewski plays Hutchinson’s insurrection day like a journey through a nightmare looking glass; while Sarah Ann Mellstrom makes a demented jack-in-the-box out of Sidney Powell. And without a doubt the Tony should go to Jessi Miller who, in a messy blonde wig and orange face paint, uncannily captures Trump’s mannerisms and inflections, showing him as ultimately a caricature of himself. Not since Charlie Chaplin has a demagogue been so deftly embodied.

Powerful men often cling to power—the story is as old as history. The old firehouse/city hall that houses Red, White, and Coup is a hundred years old, and looks every year of it. Ornate, antique, moldering and musty, the building stands as an architectural metaphor of current American politics. It will take a lot of energy, hard toil, and love to get it into good shape. Let’s hope we can find leaders who are up to the job—or become them ourselves.

Quasimondo Physical Theater presents

Red, White, and Coup

written and directed by Brian Rott

Saturday, July 13^th; Sunday, July 14^th; Monday, July 15^th

Thursday, July 18^th; Friday, July 19^th; Saturday, July 20^th

Thursday, July 25^th; Friday, July 26^th; Saturday, July 27^th

North Milwaukee Arthaus, 5151 N. 35^th St., Milwaukee WI 53209

Note: Performance is on the second floor of an historic building, which is not yet ADA accessible.

WARNING: This production contains MATURE language and content.

*A Talkback with the cast and production team will follow each performance.

TICKETS

https://www.quasimondo.org/tickets.html

Online: $25; At-the-door: $30; Student: $20

by Jeff Grygny

Historical events have inspired many a play, from Henry IV to Hamilton. Thus far, few artists have chosen to make art about what might well be the most momentous events in American history since the Civil War: Donald Trump’s refusal to yield the White House to the legal winner, and his subsequent, no-hold-barred exertions to keep it. Soon, Quasimondo Physical Theatre’s Director Brian Rott will present what might be the first of many theatrical accounts of this strange eventful history. His latest original play Red, White, and Coup is going to be showing at the same time that the Republican party is anointing their Chosen One. And it’s all happening right here in that “terrible city,” that liberal Sodom of the upper Midwest: Milwaukee. Aren’t we lucky?

Larger companies, fearful of alienating their conservative patrons, might well choose to sidestep such a rich, if perilous, topic. But under Rott’s leadership, Quasimondo has always been the little avant-garde theater that could: their phantasmagorical performances, (based on such impossible source material as computer games, Greek mythology, the work of Salvador Dali, and the Kama Sutra) are legendary. In a recent conversation, Rott articulated the strong need for a counterpoint to the Republican Convention. “In a close election year, it’s important to get out the story.” he said. “Even if most of the audience is liberal, it will drive home the importance.’ So damn the consequences: they’re dramatizing the Senate hearings on the January 6th insurrection (or as some prefer to call it, the “group tour of the capitol”).

Unlike some of Quasimondo’s more fanciful productions, Rott wants to dramatize the facts this time. So, unlike his normal process of devising a show, he wrote the script beforehand, based on six months of research. “I had 110 pages of notes,” he said with a laugh. “I probably shouldn’t have done that.” Focusing on the people who plotted to seize the presidency, he studied records of the Senate hearings, following up by reading interviews and memoirs of people connected with the preparations: both Trump’s inner circle and the people who opposed them. He described the process as “like going down rabbit holes of information. I didn’t really know that there was so much preparation [for the Capitol riot].” For voters who haven’t followed the news closely, it’s a deep dive into the moves and counter-moves in the game of power that’s still taking place on the nation’s stage. Even so, Rott says, “It’s still just the tip of the iceberg of what the [Republican] nominee is responsible for.”

The production will be minimalist, with actors playing over 50 different characters with the help of simple costume pieces. Though the format is like a documentary (with former Republican Senator Liz Cheney as the narrator), the play will feature many of the famous and not-so-famous names swirling around in the mess: the ex-president, of course, at the center of the action, and also the variety of colorful (and not-so-colorful) players: Mike Pence, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis, Kenneth Chesebro, and the ever popular Rudy Giuliani. “A handful of the Capitol rioters will be portrayed, and the iconic “Q-Anon shaman” “just might” make an appearance.

It’s all happening in the upper floor of the Arthaus, a former city hall and fire department. It’s up a tall flight of stairs, and regrettably, the building has not yet been upgraded for people with disabilities. But the high-ceilinged room was the former site of community meetings and very probably elections for many decades, so it seems like a resonant place to stage the greatest challenge to the US rule of law in our lifetimes.

So far.

Quasimondo Physical Theatre presents