Situated in the realm between satire and farce, David Mamet’s “November” mostly just wants you to laugh.
Political correctness, one of the author’s favorite targets in recent years, certainly gets a going over. But the play’s sheer wackiness is what folks will likely enjoy most about the latest Mad Horse Theatre production.
Set entirely in the Oval Office, the story concerns a U.S. president with a week to turn around a re-election vote he fears losing.
Having that all-too-familiar drive to win at any cost, the president and his staff go to work developing a plan to get the advertising money that could ensure a comeback victory. Of course, deception, manipulation, threats, extortion, bribery and whatever else it takes are all in the mix as this last-ditch effort to stay in office gains momentum.
As in most Mamet plays, the four-letter words fly freely and there’s more than enough stereotyping to offend almost everyone (the Chinese seem particularly in the author’s sights).
Brent Askari gets a shot at the lead role of President Charles Smith. Known for his frequently-employed talent for playing sarcastic bantams, the Mad Horse regular is at the center of things throughout and makes the most of it. Alternately cajoling and (more often) excoriating his underlings, he’s a puffed-up mediocrity who longs for a legacy — or at least a library in his name.
Mark Rubin plays the president’s right-hand man and the two have some of the funniest rapid-fire dialogues in the show as they discuss their highly expedient political philosophy and the relative meaning of the idea of something being “legal.” The show really crackles when these two are riffing.
Lisa Van Oosterum is not far behind in terms of her comedic work as the put-upon speech writer who believes in justice and human dignity, to the dismay of her bosses. Her character’s convoluted ideas for saving the Smith presidency feed off the basic pillars of American identity in delightfully offbeat ways.
Burke Brimmer and James Herrera round out the cast as a representative of the National Association of Turkey Manufacturers and an outraged Native American, respectively.
Both get involved in Smith and company’s crazy scheme to leverage a revised concept of Thanksgiving into money for their flagging campaign. Both were funny at Saturday’s opening, with Herrera effectively taking his role out to the edge of absurdity before getting in close to the last word.
To follow up on President Smith’s philosophy, “Everyone wants something.”
Director Christine Louise Marshall and Mad Horse Theatre, at their appealing new venue, want to lighten everyone’s load in this political season with some Mamet-style laughs.
The early returns are favorable.
Steve Feeney is a freelance writer who lives in Portland.
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