John Cameron Mitchell (here, as Hedwig, in the role he directed on film and originated
off-Broadway) has performed as Joni Mitchell. But in his latest incarnation,
he takes on First Last Laura Bush in a reading from a scene by Tony Kushner.
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By GERARD ROBINSON
Friday, July 23, 2004
Tony Kushner, the playwright whose “Angels in America” had God’s
messengers deliver political statements, is at it again.
This time, KushNer takes on the president’s wife. Laura Bush ascends
to heaven to read to the dead children of Iraq in his new work. The first scene
will get an all-star reading including Patricia Clarkson (“Enchanted
April,” “Far From Heaven”) on Aug. 2. Kristen Johnston, late
of “Third Rock from the Sun,” will host the evening.
John Cameron Mitchell (who so memorably has embodied Joni Mitchell), will
play the first lady. Mitchell sees Kushner’s vision as fundamentally “sympathetic
to Mrs. Bush as a tragic figure, a noble figure.”
The play’s title, “Only We Who Guard the Mystery Shall be Unhappy,” is
taken from Dostoyevsky. This is, of course, right up Kushner’s alley.
In the play, Bush undergoes a dialogue with an angel who tells her that nearly
600,000 children have died many from the sanctions imposed on Saddam Hussein
as well as during the two Gulf Wars. “Like all children, they are full
of regret that their day has ended,” the angel says. “Murdered
children, children who died terrible deaths.”
Bush expresses sympathy. As a former librarian, she responds that she loves
kids when she meets them for reading programs. They don’t wear pajamas
but suits, she says, unlike those in heaven, who wear pajamas.
Later on, Laura announces that she is going to read to the dead children from
Dostoyevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov,” her favorite novel,
which — in typical deadpan Kushnereze — she says is too heavy reading
for live children but appropriate for dead ones. She says she’s up all
night reading Dostoyevsky, but her husband sleeps soundly, apparently unconcerned
not only with the casualties in Iraq but with the condemned prisoners on death
row whose sentences he never commuted while governor of Texas.
The angel asks her if she’s afraid to read to dead children. She admits
to nervousness and says she’s never spoken to dead children before. “I’m
sorry you are dead, the former librarian, says. “But all children love
books.”
After the formal reading, Kushner and Mitchell will take questions from the
audience to help them figure out what works and what doesn’t. The reading
will not be blocked. It will be a sit-down affair with the actors reading from
a script.
The reading is a benefit for Moveon.org, the liberal group that has been in
the spotlight for its highly charged anti-Bush ads.
Mitchell and Kushner are entering the arena knowing that the highly political
scene was skewered by audiences and critics at a reading in Boston. (The Post’s
Page Six also trashed it.)
Mitchell himself has been as well known for his acting as directing. He starred
in the play and film of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” as well as
directing the film version. He says he is retiring from acting but he was inspired
enough by a reading of Kushner’s play in San Francisco to want to take
on the daunting role of Laura Bush.
Why did Kushner write the play and why now? Mitchell, who considers Kushner
our “greatest living playwright,” says he was motivated by his
loathing of the present administration. Kushner has not completed the play,
so this presentation will be very much a workshop.
Kushner is nothing if not ambitious. He tackles universal themes — even
cosmic ones — the way A.R. Gurney ponders the mysteries of haute WASPs.
But for Kushner, the personal has always been political. And the political
has always been profound. This work-in-progress at first blush would seem to
fit into the same category of afterlife as “Angels in America.”
It also fictionalizes real characters as did “Angels” (Roy Cohn,
for example). Here, the angel takes Laura Bush to task for her husband’s
alleged atrocities.
The first lady herself has been invited. So far, she has declined. But the
rest of us can enjoy Tony Kushner’s latest opus — and give him
feedback besides.
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