Review: NIXON'S NIXON - A Humorous and Disturbing Abuse of Power

You can file this one under "Ass-hat, Maggie" and use it as a cautionary tale: even the most practiced of theatregoers can blow it in spectacular manner. Always double-check the starting time on your tickets.

Thursday evening was the preview of Elements Theatre Collective's newest production, Russell Lees' Nixon's Nixon. I was ready. I was excited. I'd been watching reruns of The West Wing, and was prepped for a taut, sturdy political drama. I matched boots and shawl with a knit turban (the traditional shame-wear of women who've done major damage to their hair with box-blonde, and then can't get an appointment with their regular hair dresser until Tuesday) and made my way to The Bradley Studios. I saw the word studio and thought, "studio. Like an art/performance space." In fact, the Bradley studios are the kind of studio that is actually a one-room apartment. And I got the show time wrong. I waltzed into an intense two-man drama, in what is possibly the most intimate performance space in Santa Barbara, 45 minutes late. Wearing a blue turban. Undead Richard Nixon himself would have been less distracting.

But all was not lost. The half of Nixon's Nixon that I did see was a compelling view of backroom politics. Lees' rendering of the final conversation between President Nixon (Michael Bernard) and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (Laezer Schlomkowitz) before Nixon's resignation offered equally humorous and disturbing examples of desperate, last-ditch attempts to maintain power. In Nixon's Nixon, the alternately hopeful and defeated soon-to-be ex-president considers the decisions that lead him to this juncture in his career, and the legacy he'll impart upon resignation.

Nixon spends the production exhausting all possible avenues to avoid resignation, including the development of a haphazard scheme to throw the world's balance of power into a chaos that only he can shape back to calm. It begins with the idea to assassinate someone unimportant, a minor Manchurian mayor, perhaps, to rile up saber rattling along the Russia/China border. The plot snowballs quickly, and suddenly there are plans to paint an American plane Soviet and crash it into China, thus starting an international incident that is far enough away from the US to prevent wide-spread American panic, but potentially dangerous enough that US citizens have no choice but to look to Nixon for guidance through a situation of global consequences. While Nixon's blustering is made somewhat ridiculous by his impending political impotence, this type of disquieting abuse of power reminds the audience how natural political corruption becomes when those in power are left unchecked.

Director Matthew Tavianini's production is a thought-provoking examination of power (both actual and perceived). Nixon is known in American lore as a paranoid, unscrupulous statesman, but Michael Bernard brings vulnerability to the character that goes far beyond the rote sketch-comedy caricature. Nixon and Kissinger are beguiling historical figures, and Bernard and Schlomkowitz present substantial portrayals of these formidable politicians on the brink of inconsequence. I've already reserved tickets for later in the run (I will check the ticket time twice). Nixon's Nixon is bold, intellectual material--Elements' production offers the intricacies and drama of our political system with integrity and intensity of performance.

Elements Theatre Collective presents:
Nixon's Nixon
By Russell Lees

February 6-22

Directed by Matthew Tavianini
Featuring Michael Bernard and Laezer Schlomkowitz

LOCATIONS:

Thursday, February 12th at 7:00pm
Casa Esperanza Homeless Shelter, 816 Cacique St, Santa Barbara

Friday, February 13th at 8:00pm and Saturday, February 14th at 8:00 pm
Java Station, 4447 Hollister Ave, Goleta

Sunday, February 15th at 5:00pm
Carpinteria Women's Center, 1059 Vallecito Road, Carpinteria

Thursday, February 19th at 8:00pm
Buchanan Hall 1910, UCSB, Santa Barbara

Friday, February 20th at 8:00pm
Santa Barbara Guitar Bar, 137 Anacapa St., Santa Barbara

Saturday, February 21st at 8:00pm
St. Mark's in the Valley Episcopal Church, 901 Nojoqui Ave., Los Olivos

Sunday, February 22nd at 2:00pm
Santa Barbara Public Library, 40 E. Anapamu St., Santa Barbara

To reserve your free tickets, visit our website at www.elementstc.org.

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