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Theatre Journal 56.1 (2004) 117-119



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The Violet Hour. By Richard Greenberg. Steppenwolf Mainstage Theatre, Chicago. 4 May 2003.

The opening of Steppenwolf's production of The Violet Hour in the days following the United States' declaration of victory in its war against Iraq could not have been better timed. As contemporary newspapers featured front-page pictures of President George W. Bush (the Ivy-League-educated millionaire and son of a World War II veteran), it was not difficult to see the similarities between Bush and Greenberg's protagonist, John P. Seavering, who happens to be an Ivy-League-educated, wealthy, World War I veteran. Triumphant in war and successful in business, both men possess an indefatigable confidence in their ability to lead.

While this description—triumphant, successful, and confident—appears positive and seems to gesture toward a certain nobility of spirit, it also cloaks the less agreeable traits of egoism and vanity possessed by such figures. Played with delightful subtlety by Josh Hamilton, Seavering is a twenty-something graduate of Princeton and a trust-fund baby who has yet to come into his full inheritance. He is also a war veteran who has returned physically and psychologically unscathed and has recently opened a publishing house in New York City. He [End Page 117]



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Figure 1
Josh Hamilton as John Pace Seavering, Steppenwolf ensemble member Tim Hopper as Gidger, and Ora Jones as Jessie Brewster, in The Violet Hour by Richard Greenberg. Photo by: Michael Brosilow.


[End Page 118] possesses the ego and swagger that one imagines someone of his pedigree and position would display. However, he suffers from what one might call a publisher's block and must decide which of two manuscripts to publish: that of his college friend Denis McCleary, or that of his lover Jessie Brewster.

The other characters, with the notable exception of Rosamind Plinth (McCleary's fiancée), exist as fodder to fuel the imperialistic spirit of Seavering. The play is set in the aspiring magnate's office, where each of the characters has an audience with him. Tim Hopper plays Gidger, Seavering's assistant, with a comically inspired, manic energy—imagine Robin Williams playing the character Camille in A Flea in Her Ear. He introduces each guest upon his or her arrival but otherwise is overlooked by his employer. A measure of the disconnection that exists between the two men occurs early in the first act when Gidger asks Seavering: "Is Gidger my first name or my last name?" Seavering responds that he always thought of the name Gidger as a nickname and not an actual name. Kevin Stark portrays Seavering's friend McCleary in the somewhat overacted manner that is distinctive of the muscular Chicago acting style. McCleary is a talented but impoverished writer who begs Seavering to publish his book The Violet Hour. He informs Seavering that he needs some promise of money—like a book contract—in order to win the hand of Plinth, played by Kate Arrington (who originated the role at the South Coast Repertory in November 2002). Jessie Brewster, forcefully acted by Ora Jones, is a popular black singer who has written her autobiography and desperately wants Seavering to publish her manuscript. She realizes that her minority status reduces her publishing opportunities with other presses.

Besides Seavering's quandary over what manuscript to publish, the play's narrative centers on a mysterious machine that is delivered to the publishing house. Gidger's description and the machine's audible offstage operations reveal its existence as both a time machine and a word processor. The machine whirls and churns out papers throughout act 1 as it captures Gidger's attention, thereby making Seavering's habit of overlooking Gidger result in his ignoring the machine itself until the very end of the act.

Act 2 opens with Seavering's office overwhelmed by the stacks of paper that have issued from the futuristic machine. Seavering and Gidger, each grasping a chunk of the recorded future, read and discover what will happen over the next eighty years. In one of the play's...

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