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‘Poker Night at the White House’ @ Dad’s Garage
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Grade: B -
Warren G. Harding (1865-1923) once proclaimed that he was unfit for the presidency and, based on the facts, he may have been right.
The Ohio Republican made whoopee with his mistress in a closet adjacent to the Oval Office, gambled away the White House china, and left a legacy of bloopers and bloviations. In death, his image was so tainted by scandal that the dedication of his tomb was postponed for years.
“He writes the worst English that I have ever encountered,” H.L. Mencken once said of Harding, who died mysteriously at age 57 while still in office. Some have speculated that Harding was poisoned by his wife, Florence — she of the nickname “Duchess,” the helmet hair, the granny glasses. Or that his death was related to the impending tempest known as the Teapot Dome Scandal.
All this makes fine fodder for the subversive political humor of Chicago playwright Sean Benjamin, whose “Poker Night at the White House” is getting a perversely satisfying workout at Dad’s Garage. “Poker Night” reads like an 80-minute version of the miniature sketches that Benjamin and his co-authors put forth in “43 Plays for 43 Presidents,” produced by Dad’s in 2002.
Without ever referring to Bill Clinton, George W. Bush or Barack Obama, “Poker Night” suggests that history has a weird way of repeating itself. Though director Marc Cram insists in his notes that the tale of “W.G.” Harding has nothing to do with “G.W.” Bush, you can draw your own conclusions.
Just make room for Clinton, Obama and Richard Nixon, too.
In the zany shadow-puppet segment that opens the show, we learn that Harding’s good looks endeared him to women and that rumors of his black ancestry made him America’s first black president. Yuk-yuk.
The idea of a puppet presidency is enforced by the man-size likeness of the commander in chief manipulated by Kevin Huey, who doubles as the first lady’s astrologer, Madame X, often in the same scene. A jolting image that.
But if Madame X speaks in a strange amalgamation of ethnic accents, Huey’s take on Harding is hysterical. Designed by Chris Brown, the puppet is just a horse-faced old geezer with a blank stare. Yet Huey’s movement skills and Ben Tilley’s lighting imbue the ridiculous old stooge with an amazingly expressive demeanor. It’s probably not intentional, but the lumbering puppet often looks like Frank Langella playing Nixon on Broadway. I’m serious.
Gina Rickicki does a nice job alternating between Flo-Hard and presidential mistress Nan Britton. Randy Havens doubles as Mencken (who loved to lampoon W.G.) and a Secret Service agent named Jerry Menenck.
Adding to the level of absurdity are the quotation marks that hang from the ceiling. When they light up, we hear actual quotations from the historical record. A bumbling fool in the White House. Just imagine.
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