Playwright: Richard Nelson
At: TimeLine Theatre at Baird Hall, St. Paul's United Church of Christ,
615 W. Wellington Ave.
Phone: 773-281-8463; $25
Runs through: Oct 8
BY MARY SHEN BARNIDGE
When a citizen of a country hostile to the United States defects, neither side questions his/her reasons for seeking shelter at Uncle Sam's orphanage—hey, isn't it OBVIOUS? But when one of OURS—not a victim of racial prejudice like Paul Robeson, but a decorated war hero with a fine house, a lovely wife, and a child on the way—decides to join the enemy side, THEN we search for the motives behind his betrayal. Of course, this happens after the press finishes calling him a 'Benedict Arnold.'
America wasn't yet five years old when General Arnold—now settled in
an administrative position—assured his place in popular legend by
handing over information to the occupying English troops that would guarantee the redcoats a victory in their attack on West Point. Arnold's animosity toward his countrymen was fueled not only by money owed him by his government, but by his court-martial conviction for profiteering and other white-collar war crimes—his punishment possibly a diplomatic stratagem mounted by future president George Washington to placate civilians. The disgruntled veteran, however, does not reckon on his new comrades being just as foolish, shallow and corrupt as those he abandoned.
It is a rare Richard Nelson play that is not burdened with weighty political subtext, but if the West Wing parallels to our own times seem to be driven home too blatantly during the first act of this Timeline Theatre production, it is likely more the fault of the author than of Louis Contey's direction. Indeed, details that could easily be reduced to low-comedy shtick ( Washington's bad teeth, for example, or British commander Clinton's curiously—shall we say, personal—interest in the careers of his more comely subordinates ) , under Contey's guidance, are rendered with no-bigger-than-life subtlety.
For brainless flag-bashing is hardly more enlightened than brainless flag-waving ( both of which were abundantly reflected in the lobby-chat on opening night ) . And while it may be true that history is written by the victors, Nelson, Contey and a company of virtuoso artists, led by Terry Hamilton as the ultimately tragic Arnold, delve into the existing facts to raise questions as complex as the times they depict.