Holland Taylor and Ana Villafañe return to the stage as two congresswomen, generations apart in this new play about power, politics, and the perilous path to progress. N/A is a whip smart battle of wills -- and wits – between N, the first woman Speaker of the House, and A, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. Inspired by real people and events, this riveting two-hander illuminates the person whom many consider the most powerful woman in American history…and the once-in-a-generation political talent who defied her.
That's where N/A slightly falters: It seems more likely to reinforce people's existing alliances than encourage them to really consider other perspectives. The play feels tailor-made, and -timed, for one express purpose: Get out the vote. Remind its likely audience of urban liberals that divisions within their party shouldn't drive them out of it. The show was supposed to open two days before Tuesday's primaries, after all — though it's still apt that it now coincides with a presidential debate.
In rare moments, N/A waves at the HBO series Hacks and intermittently gives the impression of wanting to become a play about an established woman begrudgingly learning from a promising protégé (and vice versa). We can almost hear Deborah Vance in N’s tea-kettle complaint that she has never been on the cover of Time magazine whereas her predecessors “got multiple covers—both men, both chased out of town with their tails between their legs!” Yet the mentor-mentee dynamic is short-circuited by bumper-sticker speeches that are as off-puttingly vague and vatic on the page as when spoken aloud. “Know your friends. Know your enemies. Know the difference.” “This is a fight for the soul of the Democratic Party.” “You are the face of a movement that would render us a permanent minority.” Who had voiced these koan-quotes? In their abstract amplitude, the utterances could have been made by either N or A—or anyone at all.
2024 | Off-Broadway |
Lincoln Center Theater Off-Broadway Premiere Production Off-Broadway |
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