Thoughts on Building the Wall

I generally use my theater and ballet excursions to help take my mind off my troubles, either at work, in life, or due to the madness in the world, which is even more mad than ever at the moment.  I do wonder, at times, what it must've been like to see agitprop works done in their time, or even seeing Larry Kramer's cry of pain, The Normal Heart, at the height of the AIDS crisis.  I never thought, though, I'd be seeing a play that deals with the turmoil of the current political situation, and administration, so soon.  So my trip to see Robert Schenkkan's Building the Wall Monday night was maybe a first.

I'm a big fan of Schenkkan's work - I first read The Kentucky Cycle in college, via a Fireside Theatre edition, and I loved it.  I still hope to see it staged someday.  I've read All the Way, his celebrated play about LBJ, but haven't seen it performed live.  I'm hoping to catch the HBO version, at least.  What I like about his plays are their thoroughness, and the attention to detail, while still making all the characters totally human.  If you know anything about Building the Wall, you'll know that Robert wrote it in six days, in a furied response to the campaign and the election.  He's been adding details and editing the play, currently in production around the country, ever since.  If you haven't heard anything about the play, I urge you to read up on it - the genesis of the play is just as interesting as the play, in my opinion.  Here's a good NY Times article, though if you've used up your free articles for this month, I guess you'll have to wait to read it:  NYT article on Building the Wall.  Since I saw only the fifth preview of the Off-Broadway production, I'll just throw out a few thoughts.

photo credit (from LA production): Ed Krieger

A two-person play, Building the Wall takes place in a prison in the year 2019.  A writer/historian has come to interview an inmate; maybe for a book, maybe just to try to comprehend what Rick, the prisoner, did.  So we basically have a 90-minute conversation/interview between the two of them, and yet the play is much more than that.  Schenkkan has constructed the play terrifically well, with lots of peaks and valleys, tension and humor, with revelations coming at opportune spots, and then there's a devastating conclusion, all based on what America might be like during a Trump administration. You think you know what Building the Wall will be, and it is basically what you think it will be, but it also turns what you assume upside down.  At least it did for me.

There was a bit of a tech mishap at the start of the show, so it did put a hiccup in getting engaged, and the actors were still reaching for lines at times, but that's to be expected with so much dialogue.  I think they're on their way to really good performances, especially James Badge Dale as Rick.  He presents a very realistic version of a Trump supporter who understands, but still doesn't understand, how he got here.  And his situation is so real, it's sort of terrifying to imagine that what happens could happen. Which it could.  (Sorry to be vague, I just don't to give everything away.)  Interestingly, at the talkback after the performance, one woman made sure to mention that it was the first time she had ever felt sympathy for someone who identified as a Trump supporter.  I don't know that I would go so far as to say I had sympathy, but I did have maybe more comprehension. Or not.  I still struggle with the understanding, as my therapist can attest. But in fact, I was reminded of the play Good, where a 'good' person devolves into a Nazi, just by making one seemingly reasonable decision after another, but all that reason adds up to something entirely different.

Obviously, the play comes from a liberal perspective, but I did think it was fairly even-handed in the treatment of the characters, if not the subject matter.  So I give Schenkkan huge props for that.  I was really on the edge of my seat throughout, feeling tension and fear, and I wasn't disappointed in where we ended up.  I guess it's unavoidable that every now and then, the dialogue seemed more like directional commentary as opposed to dialogue, but that happened very few times, at least for me.  Overall, I found Building the Wall to be stimulating, thought-provoking, and well-worth your time, especially if you're looking for ways to cope during this turbulent time.