 "Photo: Courtesy of media.repstl.org")
Likely, all that you know about Richard Nixon you learned in high school history class. You may have read about the Vietnam war, anti-war protests and the bombing of Cambodia, but most likely, it was Watergate and the fact that Nixon was the only President to resign from office, in advance of impeachment, that you remember. Few have any sense of Nixon the man, a politician at once brilliant and self-destructive.
"Frost/Nixon" focuses on two figures: the exiled American ex-President Richard Nixon and the flamboyant British talk show host David Frost and the remarkable series of four interviews they conducted a year after the resignation, a pivotal point in the lives of both men.
The new play at the Repertory Theater of St. Louis, "Frost/Nixon," gives an unexpected look at this conflicted, contradictory historical figure. But Republicans need not fear a round of partisan Nixon-bashing or even a rehash of Watergate in this intriguing drama.
This may be due in part to the fact that the playwright is a British writer, Peter Morgan. Morgan showed a deft touch in personalizing political figures and treading difficult terrain with his scripts for the movies "The Queen" and "The Last King Of Scotland." This is in fact Peter Morgan's first play, but it is a winner.
The Repertory's production is the first one after the play's Broadway debut, following its successful London run.
"Frost/Nixon" follows the negotiations between Frost, a talk show host who does celebrity interviews but wants to break into serious work and big time success, and the disgraced ex-President, a life-long politician looking for a way to draw the focus of history back to his accomplishments and away from Watergate, perhaps even finding a path back into the circle of power. The larger-than-life characters and conflicting ambitions set the stage for drama of Shakespearean proportions as they approach and then conduct the historic TV interviews.
Keith Jochim is outstanding as Nixon, despite having no particular resemblance to Nixon's much-lampooned features, apart from a recreation of Nixon's distinctive receding hairline. Jochim commands the stage, capturing Nixon's rambling, nervous and "harmless uncle" style one-on-one and his ability to morph into the brilliant, crafty politician who earned the nickname Tricky Dick when the moment calls for it.
Jeff Talbot captures the restless David Frost brilliantly as a man with a burning ambition for "more" and a taste for parties and jet-set life. Frost is willing to gamble everything to make the interviews work with the goal of launching himself into international success, yet the womanizer in him womanizer in him cannot resist bringing a woman he just met to that first interview.
The men seem to have nothing but ambition in common, yet they share religious upbringings amid modest means, and they have a need to prove they are as good as anyone else.
The intersection of politics and entertainment, new at the time, takes the play at times almost into absurdity but for the taut drama that develops.
As a Brit coming out of the entertainment industry, Frost recruits help from Jim Reston (Jim Wisniewski), an academic and journalist obsessed with Nixon and seeing him admit guilt over Watergate. For financial support, Frost calls on John Birt (Keith Merrill), a friend from his days in TV comedy.
Nixon, on the other hand, has his lucrative contract negotiated by legendary Hollywood agent Swifty Lazar (the delightful Matt Landers), a piece of theater of the absurd you could not make up. Nixon is always surrounded by his retainers, valet Manolo Sanchez (David Anzuelo), who ensures Nixon always looks camera-ready, and ram-rod straight military man and personal assistant Jack Brennan (played with moving sincerity by Jeremy Holm), who is unflaggingly loyal to the ex-President no matter what.
"Frost/Nixon" starts out with some bitingly funny scenes, like Nixon cracking darkly funny jokes, as the once-great man and future-great man struggle like wrestlers for the best position. As the play unfolds, darker elements emerge and the tension builds, like the rounds of a prizefight. The drama is electrifying by the final scene.
Surprisingly, "Frost/Nixon" is less about these individuals than about the power of media, the illusions it creates, the power of pivotal moments on a small screen, its ability to zoom in and give meaning to actions dismissed in face-to-face exchanges.
It is remarkably timely in its portrayal of the media and politics and their dance with power. Like the author's previous works, it seems to transcend its particular time and place to say something about the present.
Rep Artistic Director Steven Woolf directs the production. "Frost/Nixon" is presented as a single long act without intermission, so the set has to serve a variety of functions with minimal changes. The stage backdrop is modern vertical wood paneling in the style of the late '70s, with flush vertical lights inset.
A few '70s chairs and tables serve as props for the interview stage, Nixon's beachside home or Frost's hotel room. But what really dominates the audience's view are the TV sets suspended in a line above the stage on which the interviews, and other scenes in the play, are projected. It is after all a play about the power of television to reduce and magnify.
The first-rate acting, excellent staging and sharp direction all come together to make "Frost/Nixon" a powerful and thought-provoking evening of theater, one that has something human and timeless to offer regardless of political view. It is also delightfully entertaining. The play runs through September 28 at the Repertory Theater of St. Louis, 130 Edgar Road, on the Webster University Campus. Tickets at student discounts are available.
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