Let's play: "NOW OR LATER"

(British actors. American accents. A U.S. election)

Next up in my theatre class "Now or Later," an all-too-timely play about the presidential election and Muslims (see the previous entry on Ramadan) and about a 1000 other issues. All in a concise hour and a quarter. This play's being rated on a scale of 1 to 5 Sir Ian Mckellen's.

THREE AND A HALF MCKELLEN'S out of five
Written by Christopher Shinn
Now playing at the Royal Court Theatre
Run time 1 hr. 15 min.

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"I don't think we should give up our values to find common ground. Then it's not common ground, it's their ground and we're just standing on it."

John Jr., the son of the future president, has quite a bit on his mind.

"Now or Later"
By Matt Levin

It's the eve of the U.S. presidential election. John Jr.'s father is about to become the next president of the United States.

Victory is imminent. But after party will need to be delayed. Here's the problem: Photos of John Jr. at a college party have leaked. And they're not pretty. He's dressed as the Prophet Muhammad. With a friend dressed as the fundamentalist Pastor Bob. At a naked party (exactly what you think it is). Telling every attendee they're going to Hell.*

Sure, John Jr. explains, it was all meant to be an ironic stab at his hypocritical classmates. But the president's staff is not so sure the Muslim community or the rest of America will be so understand about the picks.

So begins an hour long debate in Christopher Shinn's "Now or Later" on whether John Jr. should compromise his beliefs as he's forced into the spotlight. At the start of the Royal Court Theatre production, it appears John Jr. should quit being so stubborn and allow his father's staff to release an apology. As John Jr. explains himself, it turns into an increasingly complicated situation.

And let's face it. The privately gay, previously-suicidal and very intelligent John Jr. is a complicated character. Eddie Reymanedid an admirable job handling the role. The play, which is set entirely inside John Jr.'s hotel room touches on all sorts of issues as John Jr. debates a whole cast of characters including his mother (Nancy Crane), two political advisers and finally, Mr. President himself.

The discussions corner topics like privacy, individuality, hypocrisy, homosexuality and religion. No doubt, it can be overwhelming at times. The play, at just over an hour, sometimes feels like it's trying to cram in too much. Still, Shinn's screenplay is brilliant. Each topic is covered gracefully and humor is mixed in to keep the scene from becoming too dreary.

The acting is far from spectacular, but gets the job done. Some of the British actors (some of my classmates disagreed here) struggled at times with the American accent. President-elect John (Matthew Marsh) speaks in a bizarre cadence during his time on stage. Maybe he's mocking the current U.S. president, but it just sounds weird. Some of the characters, especially John's female African-American adviser fall into caricature during some instances. It also doesn't help that the climatic scene of the play looks like a scene from the The Simpsons.*

Nevertheless it's worth trying to wrap your head around Shinn's (an American, for those wondering) intellectual and intense screenplay. The values discussed in this play will keep you thinking right up until election day - and hopefully beyond it.

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Foot notes

*Or even worse...Detroit.
*George H.W. Bush once remarked that families in America needed to be more like the Waltons and less like the Simpsons. Well, apparently now our presidents are The Simpsons? That's no good.