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‘Looking Over The President’s Shoulder’ @Theatre in the Square
THEATER REVIEW “Looking Over the President’s Shoulder” by James Still. Theatre in the Square in Marietta. 770-422-8369, www.theatreinthesquare.com Grade: B-
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“If it falls your lot to sweep streets in life,” urged Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking at Atlanta’s Big Bethel AME Church in 1957, “sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures. Sweep streets like Beethoven composed music.”
That self-empowering, laborer-as-artisan spirit perfectly describes Alonzo Fields. Educated in Boston to sing opera, he instead found a job as a butler in the White House at the nadir of the Great Depression. Grandson of a slave, he was soon promoted to chief butler and served four presidents over 21 years.
James Still’s one-man play “Looking Over the President’s Shoulder” imagines Fields on his last day on the job. Premiered in 2001, it is running at Marietta’s Theatre in the Square through Nov. 9.
Still’s language for Fields is direct and unadorned — “Culled from Fields’ private papers, diaries and interviews,” a program note says. A few youthful memories aside, we hear next to nothing of his life outside the executive mansion.
“I heard everything that went on,” Fields tells us early on. But that tease deflates to the realm of the de-personalized and generic when he adds, “it was like being in the front row and watching the passing parade of history.”
That “everything” proves not much. Nowadays any school kid learns that Franklin Roosevelt was in a wheelchair, that Eleanor Roosevelt was a firecracker, that Winston Churchill was extraordinarily eloquent and loved his Scotch, that Harry Truman was a decent human being.
Yet even a dusty history lesson can show us something beyond. An edgier or more politically-charged production might have linked, in sneaky or overt ways, the clueless Herbert Hoover to the current occupant of the White House, or made some commentary on the leap from when a servant’s job at the White House was the best a smart, talented black man could hope for — to the day when a black man has a realistic chance of winning the presidency.
Instead, directed by Gary Yates, the play’s connections are left for the audience to explore at intermission.
In a one-man show, perfect casting is essential. As Fields, Barry Scott has handsome, leading-man looks and a rich baritone speaking voice. Yet Scott is a little slouchy, which doesn’t help animate a man who was surely a sort of robo-servant, precise in every movement, able to stand like a statue then step forward to refill a wine glass in a fluid, uninterrupted gesture. If Fields was an artist among butlers — and his words and confidence suggests he knew he was — then the actor playing Fields should move like an artist.
We’re told that music fires his soul. Scott isn’t a singer, and doesn’t deliver lines with much musicality, so he cannot fully inhabit the role. He can tell us, but can’t make us feel, what Alonzo Fields’ life must have been like, in all its honor and frustration.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment | Categories: Theater
Comments
By Randall B. Brannon
October 6, 2008 12:32 PM | Link to this
Dear “Frenchy” — Save the political views for the Editorial Page! YOUR personal political views have no place in a theater review.
Randall B Brannon Roswell, GA
By abdover
October 7, 2008 10:29 AM | Link to this
Gee, and we could have had an edgier or more politically-charged production if you could have linked Roosevelt’s mistress to Kennedy’s mistresses. That could have been sneaky or overt also. But alas, I guess you just didn’t think about that.
I get so tired of writing like this. Keep your political opinions to yourself. You do Marietta’s Theatre in the Square no favors with this. It is small and petty. You are entitled to your review. That is what you are paid to do. But please leave political opinions to another page. Your reviews will be more acceptable.
By Perry Tanner
October 27, 2008 6:24 AM | Link to this
Outstanding production! It is very sad that each performance is not sold out! It doesn’t get any better than this on the New York or London stage! A very powerful historical play.
Perry Tanner Woodstock, Georgia