Review: EISENHOWER: THIS PIECE OF GROUND at Olney Theatre Center

Solo theatrical pieces are probably among the hardest sells to an audience because there is only one performer keeping you interested in the subject. These theatrical offerings require a delicate balance between educating and entertaining audiences. Olney Theatre Center’s current attraction, Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground, unequivocally accomplishes this through with Tony Award winner John Rubinstein’s outstanding portrayal of President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Hellesen’s well written and engaging script.

Hellesen sets his play in August of 1962 at the Eisenhower farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. There, in the sun room, we meet the 71-year-old former president who is unhappy about how historians ranked past presidents in a recent publication. Eisenhower is ranked 22 out of 31. He receives a phone call from his biographer asking how his voice recordings to inform the writing of his second book are coming along. The response is basically that he does not want to write a second book even though the first one sold really well. Instead, Eisenhower goes over to his reel-to-reel player (remember those?) and begins to plead his case to the people that ranked him so low.

This is where you start to find out many things that you might not have known about Dwight D. Eisenhower – not just who he was as soldier, general, and then president, but also as a son, father, and husband. In essence, we learn –most importantly – who he was as a human and the values and ideals that guided his actions on the battlefield, in the White House, and beyond.

The most surprising things to me were that Eisenhower never wanted a military career and had no political aspirations. His principals guided every action, including the very difficult ones such as planning D-Day operations knowing full well that the young men he was sending to those Normandy beaches may never come home. A compelling recollection of visiting the concentration camps, and ensuring other military personnel and the local population saw the aftermath of those atrocities, also highlights his uncanny ability to focus on the mission and his role to execute it, but never lose his humanity.

The recollections aren’t just limited to the decades of service to the American public. We also learn a lot of information about his family, and how they shaped him. Whether it was how his wife Mamie and he lost one of their children to scarlet fever when a young maid brought it into their house, or how his mother ran things with an iron fist, each experience taught him a valuable lesson.

Director Peter Ellenstein stages the show at just the right pace and fully allows John Rubinstein to give one of the best solo performances I’ve seen in a long time. He holds you from beginning to end – bringing out both the human and fiery sides of Eisenhower.

Scenic designer Michael Deergan’s set includes a huge window that has a view of Eisenhower’s golf course.  It also becomes a screen for Joe Huppert’s projections to appear. Huppert also provides the sound design for the production.

Production Supervisor Karen L. Carpenter is running her own lights, sound, and projections. Those jobs are usually split with at leas tone other person so a big brava to Carpenter for running everything all alone.

Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground started at The New Los Angeles Repertory Company and has since been seen at the Theatre of St. Clements Off-Broadway. I hope more theatres continue to produce it and expose audiences to the many talents of John Rubinstein, as well as the subject matter and the lessons for today.

This is one show that I highly suggest you go see. If you only know Olney Theatre Center for its musicals, please consider making the trip and see what good no, great theatre, is truly all about.

Running time: One hour and 55 minutes with one intermission.

Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground runs through October 27th, 2024, in the Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab at Olney Theatre Center, which is located at 2001 Olney Sandy Spring Rd, Olney, MD.

Lead photo credit: John Rubinstein in Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground.

Photo by Maria Baranova.

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