"Mad Men" creator debuts new John Wilkes Booth play in Baltimore

Axios

3 days ago

The creator of "Mad Men" is behind a new play running in Baltimore about John Wilkes Booth.
Why it matters: Matthew Weiner was partly inspired to write his play " John Wilkes Booth: One Night Only!" after watching the Jan. 6 riot unfold and seeing echoes of the same division, violence and anger that led to President Lincoln's assassination, he told the Washington Post.
"Booth isn't just a relic. He's a warning," reads a description of the show. "One we still haven't heeded. In this play, past is … prologue."
What they're saying:"We spent too much time paying attention to our heroes and not enough time paying attention to our villains," Weiner — a nine-time Emmy winner who also wrote for "The Sopranos" — told the Post. "We do not want to look at them, but they tell us a lot."
"[Because] the fact remains that we live in the consequences of what [Booth] did right now in the fact that the Civil War never ended."
State of play: Weiner is known for diving into morally complicated characters, which he does in the darkly comedic show as Booth tells his version of the events of his life and his decision to kill Lincoln.