Playwright: Gore Vidal
At: Remy Bumppo at the Victory Gardens,
2257 N. Lincoln
Contact: ( 773 ) 871-3000; $35-$40
Runs through: Nov. 5
BY CATEY SULLIVAN
The strangest bedfellows of all? That would be politics and morality. The two mix about as well boa constrictors and baby mice. My partner once lost the mayor's race in a west suburban town by less than .01 percent of the votes ( the ones that were counted anyway ) to a woman who was indicted shortly after a campaign season that included knife fights. ( One guy actually had an eye stabbed out. ) That's how filthy things get on the local level. The mind reels at how much nastier they become when the stakes are national.
So the very premise of Gore Vidal's The Best Man—namely that presidential contender William Russell thinks he can make it to the top of the party heap solely on the merits of his record and his abilities—is a bit of a stretch. Anyone who gets as far as Russell in politics knows better. Even so, the Remy Bumppo production directed by James Bohnen is a smart provocative and acridly funny bit of business—in short, exactly what we've come to expect from Remy Bumppo.
David Darlow plays Russell, a tiresome philanderer in his personal life but an honorable, extremely thoughtful and dedicated public servant.
The year is 1960, and Russell's up for the party's presidential nomination against the rather obviously named Joseph Cantwell ( James Crag ) , a young, ruthless zealot who makes Joe McCarthy look like Mr. Rogers.
The third player in the surreal world of the national convention is outgoing President Arthur Hockstader ( Gene Janson ) , a deceptively folksy giant of a man whose real meanings come between the lines of his convivial, glad-handing conversations.
Janson is superb as a dying but still immensely powerful bastion of old-school, cutthroat, boys-club power politics. Crag is also a blazing force on the stage, a Ralph Reed type whose wholesome handsomeness barely conceals a sociopathic willingness to use whatever means necessary to get what he wants.
In Cantwell's drive to win, we get echoes of the heinous smear tactics that derailed Thomas Eagleton's brief time as George McGovern's running mate in the 1972 presidential race against Nixon. Eagleton had been treated for depression and, for that, was branded as an unstable lunatic unfit for public service.
When you consider that Vidal wrote The Best Man a dozen years before the 1972 election, the playwright seems downright prescient. Then there's the damning 'mud' Russell uncovers about Cantell: Suffice to say it's as timely as the whole don't-ask-don't-tell debacle. .
While The Best Man is firmly rooted in the white male world of the Eisenhower era, the women here are indelible. First among equals is Deanna Dunagan as the party hack responsible for making sure the candidates' wives stick to the script.
Just as memorable is Linda Gillum as Cantwell's shallow, trophy-gorgeous, martini-loving wife and the invaluable Annabel Armour as a limelight averse potential first lady with a spine of steel.
