Playwright: Gore Vidal. At: TimeLine ( sic ) Theatre, 615 W. Wellington. Phone: 773-281-8463; $25-$35. Runs through: Oct. 12. From left: Terry Hamilton, Joe Sherman and Penny Slusher in Weekend. Photo by Lara Goetsch
Weekend is a good night out: an entertaining play and production, astutely directed by Damon Kiely. It's not Gore Vidal's finest play, but like The Best Man—which is his finest—it gives audiences a mostly believable and witty behind-the-scenes look at the game of presidential politics. Lines such as 'Unlike nature, the American electorate adores a vacuum' are too true to be good, but how can you resist them? But The Best Man is about backroom power politics, while Weekend is a domestic drama about how family issues—the marriage of a presidential contender's son—impact a candidacy. However, Vidal is far better writing about politics than domestic issues. His characters are universally glib in the best sense, but depth of character evades him, especially with regard to secondary characters.
Produced 40 years ago, Weekend is set in a precise real window of time, April 1-2, 1968: the day after President Lyndon Johnson announced he would not seek another term and two days before the Martin Luther King, Jr., assassination. In the play, fictional liberal Republican Sen. Charles MacGruder prepares to run for president, citing Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Nelson Rockefeller as his likely Republican rivals. MacGruder secures support from a more conservative and veiled racist Senate colleague, whereupon MacGruder's disaffected son returns home from studies in Europe with an African-American bride-to-be. The play then combines Guess Who's Coming to Dinner with The Lion in Winter in an evening of deal and double-deal.
In some ways, Weekend is a model of its type; a tightly written light drama with plenty of comedy, lots of political wisecracks ( mainly at Richard Nixon's expense ) and enough plot surprises to keep things lively ( as does Kiely's excellent pacing ) . But such a potboiler was old-hat even in 1968. Today it's very much a period piece, not for its political bitchery—which remains trenchant—but for its dramatic form and style. Still, if Weekend is well-produced, one can kick back and have a good time, and this show is well-produced.
The ensemble is powered by veteran Terry Hamilton's firmly-centered but robust MacGruder, Penny Slusher's warm but cagey Mrs. MacGruder and Janet Ulrich Brooks's scene-stealing comedy as the other Senator's wife. The remaining cast shines less brightly only because they have far less to do, although beautiful Juliet Hart, as MacGruder's executive assistant/lover, conveys a great deal beyond her limited words.
Kudos also for scenic designer Keith Pitts, whose efficient, richly detailed layout is a model of off-Loop achievement on a modest budget. From the cream-colored walls to the crown molding, to the tasteful traditional furnishings and decor, it looks exactly as an upper crust neo-Georgian home should.
All in all, Weekend is a stylish show, and TimeLine does stylish very well.