Eliza Stoughton and Greg Matthew Anderson/Photo: Johnny Knight
“Born Yesterday” by Garson Kanin is maybe the most quintessentially theatrical piece of theater I’ve ever seen: six white men talking about politics and democratic ideals with heavy continental, Jersey and Southern accents and a blond waif who cries when a man implies she’s thirty, all contained within a plush pink penthouse that costs $235 a night while drinking maybe as much in whiskey.
We’re in Washington, following World War II. Harry Brock (Sean Michael Sullivan) is a strong man, junkyard king and multimillionaire scratching out bribes in DC. Paul Verrall (Greg Matthew Anderson) is a young writer at the New Republic: highly educated and deeply ideological. Billie Dawn (Eliza Stoughton) is the aforementioned waif who reels between them, at first apathetic to Brock’s scumbag behavior though soon educated out of that neutral space by Verrall.
At its core, “Born Yesterday” is driven by the idea that our democracy is under fire from corrupt individuals but guided by the ground level folks (like Dawn’s unseen father) and all the others who can’t afford digs like the set here. The parallel between our political situation is clear.
But at the same time, the play is naive, not because it believes in hope but because it so totally fails to understand any complexities beyond simple bribery. Brock is stopped by Dawn’s awakened sense of education and individualism, which is allowed only via Verrall: she’s granted a leading role because of Verrall’s extensive work with her and her motives are often strung back to her desire for the writer. She is relegated to being Verrall’s intellectual stooge and wife instead of the heroine that she might have been.
The performances are strong though. Sullivan is vile and believable, never eliciting sympathy though maybe a bit of pity as a person out of time and options. Stoughton is wickedly sharp, playing her character smarter and fuller than the text could possibly suggest. Brock’s lawyer (Shawn Douglass) has some clever asides and plays a convincing drunk.
“Born Yesterday” is a pleasant night at the theater, but not much else. (Jay Van Ort)
Remy Bumppo at the Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 North Lincoln, (773)404-7336, remybumppo.org. $15-$57.50. Through April 30.
Related Stories
Monstrous Humanity: A Review of Frankenstein at Remy Bumppo Theatre Company In alternating its two leads between creature and creator, Remy Bumppo Theatre Company leans into their inescapable interrelation.
A Mighty Waft: A Review of Puff: Believe It Or Not at Remy Bumppo Theatre Company A nineteenth-century comedy of errors that strives for relevance but ends up as something much more satisfying: entertainment.
Familiar Farce: A Review of The Skin of Our Teeth at Remy Bumppo Theatre Company This revival of Thornton Wilder's strange and strangely prescient play feels as bizarre as it does familiar.
Love Blooms Eternal: A Review of Bloomsday at Remy Bumppo Theatre Company Inspired by James Joyce's "Ulysses," Steven Dietz's play is structured as a chord of simultaneity rather than a sequence of events.
Stranger in a Familiar Land: A Review of The Father at Remy Bumppo Theatre Company Florian Zeller's award-winning 2012 play gets its moving local premiere at Remy Bumppo.
New Country, Same Drama: A Review of Great Expectations at Silk Road Rising and Remy Bumppo Theatre Company RECOMMENDED Tanika Gupta’s eye-opening reimagining of Charles Dickens’ classic reveals new depths to this tale of rags to riches. In Dickens’ original, Pip comes from modest means in the marshes of Kent to bustling London to become a “gentleman” and consequently learns about Victorian society's cruel sense of justice. In Gupta’s adaptation, Dickens’ words take on new life, set at the…
i value your observations, but I wonder if your responses aren’t irrevocably linked to your demographic