Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Not all heroes wear capes.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

The words do not have to be perfect.

You are here: Home / Popular Culture / Theater Review – The Missionary Position

Theater Review – The Missionary Position

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Imagine a bright-eyed, sincere religious right attache doing his movement conservative thing in a Republican presidential race. Roger seems genuinely troubled by drinking, swearing and multiple marriages, and if you think this guy doesn’t exist or wouldn’t last five minutes in a real campaign , that’s the point. The play follows Roger through interchangeable hotel rooms with interchangeable maids, played with a chameleon’s gift by a single actress. Roger’s only other contacts seem to be a profane campaign finance chair who lives to torment Roger’s delicate sensibilities, and Katherine Harris circa 2000.

The politics are fun but more incidental than you would expect in a campaign play feeding on current events. The Missionary Position is less a political drama than a tragedy in the classical Greek mold. A well-meaning protagonist (yes, we’re expected to feel sympathetic for the fundie) seems fit for greatness until the inescapable character flaw leads him to gradually destroy everything around him. In the place of a Greek chorus Roger’s well-meaning harassment of (and occasionally, hilariously, harassment by) various hotel maids underlines the danger in meaning too well and thinking too little. The show has a wit that the cast’s chemistry carries well, for example watch out when the pseudonymous Ms. Harris rips into one of her room-filling rants. The startling, funny denouement is itself worth the price of admission.

For what it’s worth, my wife and I enjoyed it far more than a stiff Julius Caesar by the Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theater company. Can we agree that the trend of adding contemporary “significance” by throwing modern clothes on historical figures just confuses the narrative? Either rewrite the script so that Brutus’s suit and tie make sense, or bring out the togas so the audience can do the minimal work in figuring out the old-modern allegory. Annoyingly, I spent important dialogue-enjoyment time (some of the acting was quite good) trying to work out whether, if the plotters are neocons and Brutus is Colin Powell (the same actor plays Powell in a companion piece, David Hare’s Stuff Happens), that must mean that Marc Antony is…Qusay Hussein? Harry Reid? My brain hurts. Also, I’m willing to pay a dollar more if you’re willing to paint the set.

/grump.

The Missionary Position plays until May 20 at the City Theater in Pittsburgh.

Reader Interactions

13Comments

  1. 1.

    lard lad

    Can we agree that the trend of adding contemporary “significance” by throwing modern clothes on historical figures just confuses the narrative? Either rewrite the script so that Brutus’s suit and tie make sense, or bring out the togas so the audience can do the minimal work in figuring out the old-modern allegory.

    As a former drama jock, I couldn’t agree more. If you want to garland a Shakespeare with modern trappings, pick something other than the histories, for God’s sake. The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream can work wondrous well in many varied settings. Julius Caesar? Not so much.

    One of the lowest lows of my theatre-going experiences was a 1986 production of Henry IV, Part I that had Prince Hal done as Boy George and Falstaff as a leather daddy. They somehow managed to work Star Wars and breakdancing in, too.

  2. 2.

    Scruffy McSnufflepuss

    Marc Antony is Clinton. A shameless, Vince-Foster-murdering opportunist who will stop at nothing to gain power in America… Or, in this case, Rome. It’s in his nature to hate decency and virtue, and to exploit those admirable qualities in others for demagogic effect. It’s who he is.

    Also, I’m willing to pay a dollar more if you’re willing to paint the set.

    I’m willing to pay a dollar to see the great Dadaist play known as That One Where They Sell Two Tickets Per Seat, Then Sit on Stage and Watch the Audience Fight Over the Seating Arrangements. That one brings down the house every time.

  4. 4.

    jake

    One of the lowest lows of my theatre-going experiences was a 1986 production of Henry IV, Part I that had Prince Hal done as Boy George and Falstaff as a leather daddy. They somehow managed to work Star Wars and breakdancing in, too.

    That breaks the crap-tastic barrier. But then I’m such a crank contemporized classics piss me off. Romeo + Juliet made me want to go all Titus Andronicus on the people involved.

  5. 5.

    Punchy

    Romeo + Juliet made me want to go all Titus Andronicus on the people involved

    .

    Uh….what…and what?

  6. 6.

    jenniebee

    The theater program at VCU did an update of Romeo and Juliet a few years back, made the apothocary a crack dealer, etc. Every high school in the Richmond area sent their ninth graders, natch, and VCU was braced for complaints about the interpretation, but what they didn’t expect was to be utterly inundated with complaints – serious complaints, mind you – that they had showed a play to high school students that glorified teen suicide. I kid you not.

    The Missionary Position sounds good, Tim – thanks for the heads up.

  7. 7.

    Jake

    that they had showed a play to high school students that glorified teen suicide.

    Holy shit, if I was going to list cities in VA that aren’t crammed with ignorant arseholes, Richmond would have made the top three. I mean, people who live in the rain forests of New Guinea probably know that this play does not have a happy ending. Thank goodness they didn’t put on

    [ACTORS AVERT YOUR EYES]

    MacBeth. Oh mah gawd! Them librul college kids is glorifyin’ witch-craft and murder. Git mah gun!

    How depressing.

  8. 8.

    Scruffy McSnufflepuss

    The theater program at VCU did an update of Romeo and Juliet a few years back, made the apothocary a crack dealer, etc. Every high school in the Richmond area sent their ninth graders, natch, and VCU was braced for complaints about the interpretation, but what they didn’t expect was to be utterly inundated with complaints – serious complaints, mind you – that they had showed a play to high school students that glorified teen suicide. I kid you not.

    What’s even worse is, that play was probably written by a homosexual. (Or a lesbian, if you think Shakespeare was actually Queen Elizabeth herself. Or an alcoholic, if you think Shakespeare was actually Christopher Marlowe. Or a secular humanist, if you think Shakespeare was actually Francis Bacon. Or a space alien, if you think Shakespeare was in on the JFK assassination. Or…)

  9. 9.

    Rome Again

    That breaks the crap-tastic barrier. But then I’m such a crank contemporized classics piss me off. Romeo + Juliet made me want to go all Titus Andronicus on the people involved.

    Well, I will admit to having a certain horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach when they introduced guns into the updated contemporary movie version starring Leo DiCaprio and Clare Danes.

  10. 10.

    The Other Steve

    Imagine a bright-eyed, sincere religious right attache doing his movement conservative thing in a Republican presidential race. Roger seems genuinely troubled by drinking, swearing and multiple marriages, and if you think this guy doesn’t exist or wouldn’t last five minutes in a real campaign , that’s the point.

    Honestly, that’s me 15 years ago.

    I’m still opposed to drinking and multiple marriages. But at least these days I swear like a sailor.

  11. 11.

    grumpy realist

    Can I also have a shout out to opera directors who don’t try to pull the Avant-Guard, Daring, and Making It Relevant schtick?

    The worst I personally saw was Il Trovatore updated to the Civil War in Spain. Yeah, I know the plot makes little sense anyway, but at least it’s not totally turning into complete silliness. Leonora going into a cloister –> updated to joining the Red Cross. Nope, sorry, that just isn’t going to work.

    It is very very rarely that I have seen an opera made better by dumping it in a time machine.

  12. 12.

    Tim F.

    It is very very rarely that I have seen an opera made better by dumping it in a time machine.

    Police-state Rigoletto was actually pretty good. But I don’t speak opera so I couldn’t tell what they were supposed to be saying anyway.

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