#MormonInChief
nytheatre.com review by David Gordon
August 14, 2012
As evidenced in the recent case of actress Morgan James and the Public Theater's production of Into the Woods, Twitter can be a dangerous place if you don't entirely comprehend just how far your comments can spread.
Just like Ms. James, Connor Jorgenson, protagonist of Matthew Greene's timely but underwhelming play #MormonInChief, learned that the hard way. Connor, an average Joe Mormon played by Jesse Liebman, Tweeted a paraphrased quote from the candidate - using quotation marks - saying that the country would be better without gays and illegals, something the campaign vehemently denies.
The Tweet created a minor controversy, and in the mind of Lydia, a cutthroat 22-year-old political blogger played by Nicole Rodenburg, she's about to break the story of a lifetime. She has secured an interview with Connor in a mightily unorthodox way - she shows up on his doorstep having gotten his address from someone she used to sleep with - but when the campaign demands an apology, everything's up for grabs.
#MormonInChief, starts with a great deal of promise - a nifty series of projections (designed by David Bengali) and a compelling, articulate, and just a little bit vague monologue delivered by the compelling Rodenburg's green Lydia. But this potentially intriguing work, statically directed by Austin Regan, lost me mid-way through the first scene and never got me back.
As a main character, Connor is too vanilla to be compelling, and although we're told his comment ignited a firestorm, the stakes are so low that we never actually believe it. He doesn't think he did anything wrong, he even enlists Lydia to write a statement for him, and all that makes is for a very circular 90 minutes. Liebman seems trapped in a character that's an ineffectual cypher with no room to go or grow, and easily overpowered by the fiery Rodenburg's conniving, ballsy, and ethically questionable blogger. A third character, Connor's friend Kate, played by Karis Danish, is more distracting than necessary, despite a strong performance from Danish.
The three-hander is set in Connor's apartment, simply designed in matching aquamarine colors - down to book jackets - by Jason Ardizzone-West.
Ultimately, #MormonInChief, doesn't suffer from a lack of potential, it just doesn't know where to go. It's timely alright, but like all Tweets heard around the world, it needs to say something.
