Latest news with #WhattheConstitutionMeanstoMe
Forbes
20-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
These San Diego Regional Theaters Meet The Moment With Must-See Shows
Quentin Earl Darrington as Frederick Douglass and Ivan Hernandez as President Abraham Lincoln in La Jolla Playhouse's world-premiere musical, "3 Summers of Lincoln." You never need an excuse to escape to sunny San Diego but major premieres at two of the coveted destination's award-winning theaters are reason enough to drop everything and book a trip now. 3 Summers of Lincoln at La Jolla Playhouse and What the Constitution Means to Me at North Coast Rep are both exceptional shows that are impactful, important and thought-provoking, especially at this time in history. Although they share themes focused on the US government, they are totally different – one's a musical, the other a play; one is an exploration of the effort to end the Civil War, the other an exploration of the effort to create the Constitution – and each brings something exciting and relevant to the table. It's impossible to talk about 3 Summers of Lincoln without mentioning Hamilton but they really have little in common other than the fact that they're both contemporary musicals about a game-changing period in US history. While Hamilton mostly features hip hop and rap, 3 Summers of Lincoln is more traditionally Broadway, filled with anthems, ballads and enough catchy songs to eventually earn it a Tony nomination. If I could find the soundtrack on Spotify, I would have downloaded it as I left the theater. The La Jolla Playhouse run is the musical's world premiere, and you'll be sucked in from the first notes of its opening number, 'Ninety Day War.' Featuring a riveting performance by a soldier played by Evan Ruggiero, a self-described 'one-legged tap dancer,' who offers a physical representation of the telegraph that experts believe helped Lincoln win the war, its percussive beat goes right through you and you can't help sit up straighter, instantly at attention. (L-R) Eric Anderson, Noah Rivera, Johnathan Tanner and Evan Ruggiero in La Jolla Playhouse's world-premiere musical, "3 Summers of Lincoln." The show covers the summers of 1862, 1863 and 1864 as President Lincoln tries to end the war that has been going on for days, months, years – which are regularly displayed on the impressive set, conveying the heaviness of this endless battle and its massive body count. He worries about the soldiers, doubts his decisions and gets more and more frustrated with General McClellan. He also develops a treasured and often volatile relationship with abolitionist Frederick Douglass. Their meetings are electrifying. It's so moving to watch Lincoln struggle over whether to issue the Emancipation Proclamation against the warnings of his cabinet. When he finally decides to do the right thing and end slavery, despite the fact that it may cost him a second term, it feels like a miracle. Every performance in 3 Summers of Lincoln is outstanding, with Ivan Hernandez totally embodying the President (if you saw him on the street, you'd swear Lincoln had come back to life) and Quentin Earl Darrington stealing the spotlight every time he appears on stage as Douglass. Carmen Cusack is a three-dimensional Mary Todd Lincoln, Saycon Sengbloh becomes more than Mary's trusted friend and dressmaker and John-Andrew Morrison is a stand out as Lincoln's butler. With gorgeous sets, costumes and songs, 3 Summers of Lincoln deserves to follow many of La Jolla Playhouse's former hits (including Jersey Boys, Come From Away, Redwood) to Broadway. Jacque Wilke in "What the Constitution Means to Me" at North Coast Rep. A few miles north, in Solana Beach, North Coast Rep has just extended the San Diego premiere of What the Constitution Means to Me by Heidi Schreck. I had seen the Tony-nominated show on Amazon Prime and loved it but seeing it in person, especially in the intimate North Coast Rep theater, was truly meaningful. Jacque Wilke stars as the playwright herself, who recreates her real-life experiences as a 15 year old student who paid for college with money she earned by winning Constitutional debate competitions at American Legion halls across the country. The show is deeply personal, making it a much more natural way to teach people an important thing or two than lecturing them. It's well-structured, hilarious, heartbreaking, educational and relatable. Wilke is likeable and personable as Heidi and it's easy to get invested in her stories and history, all of which are tied into the Constitution and its amendments. We suddenly grasp the meaning of this document as she reveals both its brilliance and flaws, using actual recordings of Supreme Court justices involved in their own debates about real cases. Em Danque and Jacque Wilke in "What the Constitution Means to Me" at North Coast Rep. It quickly becomes clear that women have been underserved by the Constitution, which Heidi argues is a 'living document' that can and should evolve over time. One of the highlights of the show is the debate between Heidi and a local student (Em Danque), who each take a side on whether to keep or abolish the Constitution. Every audience member is given a pocket copy of the Constitution to keep and encouraged to cheer for points they agree with and boo when they disagree. At every performance, one audience member is chosen to pick the winner of the debate. At mine (and 85% of the performances, according to the stage manager) , she opted to keep the Constitution with the caveat that it needed more amendments to protect rights for all. Or, to quote President Lincoln himself, 'The people – the people – are the rightful masters of both congresses, and courts – not to overthrow the constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert it.' The audiences of both What the Constitution Means to Me and 3 Summers of Lincoln were totally engaged and vocal, applauding wildly when specific lines hit home, reinforcing the plays' messages that we, the people, have to participate if we want to influence the outcome of elections, wars, bills, the future of democracy. We can't just be spectators.
The Guardian
27-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
A Knock on the Roof review – slowly searing account of life lived in a state of constant terror
If you had five to 15 minutes to flee your home before a bomb flattened it, what would you take? How would you get your family out of a seventh-floor flat? How fast could you run? These hypothetical questions take on chilling reality for a Palestinian woman living under Israeli occupation in Gaza. Khawla Ibraheem's unnervingly funny (at first) and slowly searing monologue could not be more relevant, although it was first conceived in 2014. That it feels so urgent more than a decade on is all the more tragic. Developed and directed by Oliver Butler, who previously directed Heidi Schreck's Pulitzer prize-nominated What the Constitution Means to Me, this too is delivered as a solo female testimony, whimsical at first, then throttling in its grip. Mariam (Ibraheem) is living with her elderly mother and young son in Gaza when war breaks out. The title is taken from the Israeli military protocol of forewarning civilians, five to 15 minutes before a bomb is dropped on their building, with a knock on their roof. Mariam imagines what this warning will mean: what if her child is asleep? What if her mother is in the shower? The principle of forewarning civilians within this timeframe has been debated in the recent Israel-Hamas conflict. This play shows us, woefully, what it means for Mariam. Mariam begins rehearsing her evacuation drill playfully at first. She is psychologically terrorised by war but this is not apparent: she teases the audience, muses on marriage and motherhood. It is not far off standup but the tone imperceptibly slides into darkness until Miriam is trapped in her rehearsals, setting timers and training for the run of her life with weights representing her son. The drills, increasingly obsessive and interspersed with a fearful waiting, seem Beckettian in their existential terror. Ibraheem, a Syrian actor living under Israeli occupation in the Golan Heights, performs with such control, precision and truth that entire streets come to life. So does Mariam's home, neighbours, and the weight of her son in her arms. In one abject moment, she describes children on the street who are play-acting a funeral procession and it sums up generational trauma in a single image. There is only a chair on stage, as if the play itself can be packed away at short notice, while lighting, designed by Oona Curley, expands to fill the space along with Rami Nakhleh's music and sound design. Like Schreck, Ibraheem focuses on the domestic and intimate but her story draws a much bigger picture of the indignities of occupation (the checkpoints, waiting for electricity, rushing to have a shower) and the terrifying plight of women strategising for the survival of their families in war. If a central purpose of theatre is to play out difficult conversations and breach divides, this devastating show is absolutely essential viewing. At the Royal Court theatre, London, until 8 March
