In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Theatre Journal 55.3 (2003) 543-544



[Access article in PDF]
Continental Divide: Mothers Against. By David Edgar. Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The New Theatre, Ashland. 29 March 2003.
Continental Divide: Daughters Of The Revolution. By David Edgar. Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Angus Bowmer Theatre, Ashland. 29 March 2003.
[Figures]

Continental Divide is the collective title for two new plays, Mothers Against and Daughters of the Revolution by English playwright David Edgar. Both plays were jointly commissioned and produced by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and directed by Tony Taccone—the Berkeley Rep's artistic director who previously directed Edgar's Pentecost in1997. The two plays in Continental Divide share issues and characters but happily offer variety in focus and dramaturgy. Mothers Against is an intense chamber piece about Sheldon Vine (Bill Geisslinger)—Republican candidate for governor of an unspecified Pacific coast state—as he prepares for a debate. Daughters of the Revolution on the other hand is an expansive epic theatre play about the diaspora of 1960s student radicals and introduces Vine's Democratic opponent, Rebecca McKeene (a fine performance by Demetra Pittman in a minor role).

Mothers Against resembles Edgar's TheShape of the Table (1990)and Pentecost (1994) in exploring political conflicts in confined spaces. It is a self-conscious old-fashioned political melodrama about principles of conduct and the drive to win elections by any means necessary. In a story within which a gubernatorial race once thought a lost cause for the Republicans turns into a contest that is too close to call, the play pits free-marketers or newer social issue voters against social conservatives or traditional old money base within the GOP. Ironically, fiscal conservative Sheldon Vine's jump in the polls arises from voter ignorance of his true, relatively liberal position on two interconnected hot-button issues: the shooting of an eco-terrorist by a Latino security guard and "Proposition 92." The latter is a loyalty oath that would make it illegal for registered voters to support a group that pursues its ends through force. However, securing the necessary votes to win the election exposes ideological rifts in the campaign team. His handlers struggle to position the candidate on these matters while maintaining his approval ratings, trying as much as they could, not to betray the candidate's beliefs. Edgar injects dynastic struggles into this mix as Sheldon's campaign manager and older brother, Mitch, is resentful of being passed over for the candidacy because of his seeming mismanagement of the family fortune, while Sheldon's daughter, Deborah, may know more than she reveals about the slain eco-terrorist.

Mothers Against is packed with moral choices in a narrative within which multiple conversations and actions occur simultaneously. However, in his effort to anatomize thoroughly the Republican Party, Edgar over-reaches by piling on too many issues, too many haunted characters, and too many big secrets—all inadequately prioritized. Watching Mothers Against is like being a novice viewer dropped into the middle of an exceptionally heated episode of The West Wing. The audience desperately clings to every word and gesture in an attempt to follow the political maneuverings, which, in this case, are obscured by the breathless pace of the OSF production. Whereas on the printed page, the plot is fairly clear, this is not so onstage. While one can sympathize with director Taccone's choice of speed over clarity, the audience is frequently left behind. With a three-hour running time, some thought might have been given to streamlining Edgar's text.

Another casualty of Edgar's efforts to address every issue besetting the Republican Party is characterization: no one in this play emerges as a genuinely interesting individual. The same might be said for Daughters of the Revolution, but merely functional characters do less damage to its epic scope. To make the heavy weight of personal and family history in Mothers Against dramatically gripping depends upon the emergence of compelling personalities. Edgar's failure to achieve this handicaps the performances, which in their briskness [End Page 544] became stagy. The problem is less evident in the...

pdf

Share