4 days ago
John Wilkes Booth takes center stage in ‘Mad Men' creator's new play
(NewsNation) — 'Mad Men' creator Matthew Weiner's directorial play debut puts one of America's most notorious killers in the spotlight.
'John Wilkes Booth: One Night Only,' brought to life with the help of producer Ken-Matt Martin, centers on the man who shot and killed President Abraham Lincoln.
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'We learn a lot from studying our villains,' Weiner told NewsNation. 'And the thing that really got to me is how much we live in the shadow of his act.'
Examining infamous figures 'tells us more about who we are as a country than it does just looking at our heroes,' Martin said.
Booth, a Baltimore native, was 26 at the time of Lincoln's assassination.
When asked about the parallels between Booth and Luigi Mangione — who is accused of killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson — Martin and Weiner emphasized the importance of interrogating violence's place in American history.
Mangione is also from Maryland and was 26 years old when Thompson was killed.
'The thing that I think is at the core of why it's important for us to be producing and looking at, it's not to glorify, but it's actually to better understand and contextualize why people do the things that they do,' Martin said.
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Weiner echoed that sentiment.
'America is proud of its anti-authority nature,' he said.' But the reality is most of the changes that have happened in this country eventually come into the hands of violence. It is part of, unfortunately, the way this country was born, and it's part of our mythology.'
'This is a challenging thought to open your mind to,' Weiner continued. 'The idea that there is something particular to America that produces people like this, and that we live in their destruction, and that we need to understand them so that we can move beyond this.'
The play will run from May 15 to June 15 at Baltimore Center Stage. It is recommended for audiences 14 and older.
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