Thursday, October 14, 2004
Yesterday I attended a crowded performance of David Hare's "Stuff Happens" at the National Theatre here in London. Not by choice, let me assure you: watching a left-wing Brit (and Brits are completely left-wing) sully the reputation of the greatest president in my memory wasn't my idea of a good time. But we went with our drama class in order to see the effect drama can have on the Great Unwashed when it comes to forming opinions. I know that it can. That's what scares me.
"Stuff Happens" was very well produced so that gaudy background sets didn't interfere with the agenda the playwrite was trying to get across and the performance is quite seamless. There, my praise ends however. In the US, by this time, someone would have noticed that Hare misquotes Bush, Cheney and others during supposedly "historical" press conferences, putting words in their mouth and trimming out others to make them look absurd. By this time, there would be a web page pointing out these inconsistencies and falsehoods and a growing number of people would be condemning the play as well as praising it, and no playwrite likes that. Here in Britain, truth matters less than being entertained at other people's expense (a most cynical and arrogant group of people) so that hasn't happened yet. At least to my knowledge. Hare also projects left-wing wishy-washiness onto political figures he doesn't like; thus, in one of his "imagined" scenes, Dick Cheney suggests angrily that Bush should throw Tony Blair to the dogs and go it alone, even without the British. This complete misrepresentation of American public figures is only able to be swallowed if one has accepted the rest of the misrepresentation that Hare has done. By that time in the play, Cheney has been made to look completely disagreeable and irrational. But Cheney has been at the forefront in defending Blair and our other allies in Iraq and it does not make sense that in private he would urge their being abandoned. Nor would Bush consider the idea. There's a lot you could say about George W. Bush, but he is not disloyal--if a person has been loyal to him (whether that person is Vladimir Putin, Dick Cheney or Tony Blair) he will be unfailingly loyal to that person and that's something that rings through anyone who really knows him. But that doesn't matter. Hare is out to caricature and this is all he cares about.
Further, Hare continues to use the sick leftwing ploy to paint Bush as two mutually-exclusive things--a manipulative leader who orchestrates everything the way he wants it and pushes Blair and others around and the mindless puppet of Condoleeza Rice and Dick Cheney. But you can't have it both ways. He either is or he isn't intelligent; he either is or he isn't a puppet. And if he is a puppet, you can't blame him for what happens; and if he is manipulative, you cannot say he's not intelligent. But that doesn't matter in Hare-world where history can be trimmed to advance one's agenda. In the US, he would be challenged (not censored); in the UK he will not be either censored or challenged.
"Stuff Happens" was very well produced so that gaudy background sets didn't interfere with the agenda the playwrite was trying to get across and the performance is quite seamless. There, my praise ends however. In the US, by this time, someone would have noticed that Hare misquotes Bush, Cheney and others during supposedly "historical" press conferences, putting words in their mouth and trimming out others to make them look absurd. By this time, there would be a web page pointing out these inconsistencies and falsehoods and a growing number of people would be condemning the play as well as praising it, and no playwrite likes that. Here in Britain, truth matters less than being entertained at other people's expense (a most cynical and arrogant group of people) so that hasn't happened yet. At least to my knowledge. Hare also projects left-wing wishy-washiness onto political figures he doesn't like; thus, in one of his "imagined" scenes, Dick Cheney suggests angrily that Bush should throw Tony Blair to the dogs and go it alone, even without the British. This complete misrepresentation of American public figures is only able to be swallowed if one has accepted the rest of the misrepresentation that Hare has done. By that time in the play, Cheney has been made to look completely disagreeable and irrational. But Cheney has been at the forefront in defending Blair and our other allies in Iraq and it does not make sense that in private he would urge their being abandoned. Nor would Bush consider the idea. There's a lot you could say about George W. Bush, but he is not disloyal--if a person has been loyal to him (whether that person is Vladimir Putin, Dick Cheney or Tony Blair) he will be unfailingly loyal to that person and that's something that rings through anyone who really knows him. But that doesn't matter. Hare is out to caricature and this is all he cares about.
Further, Hare continues to use the sick leftwing ploy to paint Bush as two mutually-exclusive things--a manipulative leader who orchestrates everything the way he wants it and pushes Blair and others around and the mindless puppet of Condoleeza Rice and Dick Cheney. But you can't have it both ways. He either is or he isn't intelligent; he either is or he isn't a puppet. And if he is a puppet, you can't blame him for what happens; and if he is manipulative, you cannot say he's not intelligent. But that doesn't matter in Hare-world where history can be trimmed to advance one's agenda. In the US, he would be challenged (not censored); in the UK he will not be either censored or challenged.
// posted by The Pendragon @ 4:33 AM 
