"THE IMPEACHMENT TRIAL OF GEORGE W. BUSH AND RICHARD B. CHENEY"

The ISA (International Studies Academy) hosts the World Premier of “The Impeachment Trial of George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney,” May 17th through Friday, May 23 and Saturday, May 24 at 8PM.

This ground-breaking, important, hypothetical, play is produced by Shirley Golub, challenger to Nancy Pelosi on June 3. “As long as I’m on the table,” Ms. Golub says, “impeachment is too! By voting for me on June 3, you can make this production a true, life-imitates-art event.”

Fascinating in its premise,“Impeachment” features a stellar cast with Alexander Cukor as George Bush. Cukor, a Berkeley native now living and pursuing an acting career in Glendale, CA, plays Bush as an easily led, boyish dupe, more interested in football than his own impeachment. Armand J. Blasi is convincing as a snide, disdainful, Dick Cheney. Blasi has been in over a hundred plays and has acted in TV and film.

Dudley Winkoop’s set is a straight ahead courtroom scene with Chief Justice John Roberts presiding from behind the high bench. Roberts is played by Vermont native, Matthew Child, who now lives in Berkeley. Child has international theatre, TV and film experience. A superlative, intense, Caroline Noh, from Leeds, England, is the Defense Counsel. Noh has three decades of theatre, film, and TV to her name in the US, Australia, and England. The defendants and witnesses sit at a table opposite that of House Prosecutor, played by Ray Carlson, who says this “prescient play is a venue of a lifetime,” integrating his passion for social justice and his political activism. Carlson is a social worker by profession. He believes we change the world by speaking truth to power as in this play, then watching the ripple effect. Both Noh and Carlson are believable as they each present their opening statements to the audience, acting as the Senate.

The House Prosecutor charges Bush and Cheney with “high crimes and misdemeanors,” which Defense, of course refutes, calling the impeachment trial a partisan act of grandstanding. Nancy Pelosi is played credibly by political activist, actor and dancer, Janine Boneparth. Currently, Pelosi‘s position is that “impeachment proceedings . . . will distract us from our mission to achieve” the goal of “bringing our troops home safely and soon.“ However, since the play takes place between the present and the November election, the character of Pelosi, realizing that her approval ratings are tanking, speaks more positively, saying that both Democrats and Republicans are more inclined to impeach. Implying that she’ll go along.

The play was directed by Canadian Ray Whelan, who has an impressive fifty-year theatre background. The name of the playwright was not listed on the program, so I asked and was told “Impeachment” was mostly written by actor Greywolf, with revisions done by a committee. Greywolf has an impressive background in theatre, playing everyone from leads in Shakespeare to Scrooge, and Hitler in “Names.“ He’s played an Arab, a Rabbi; and was artistic director and Richard of “Richard III.” Now, he adds Bruce Fein to his roster. Fein had written the articles of impeachment against Clinton, now wrote them against Bush and Cheney. The text for “Impeachment” was obviously accessed from declassified Bush Administration documents available to the public since 9/11, via the Freedom of Information Act. Both prosecutor and defense deliver their lines (often reading from documents) dynamically and engagingly so that legal transcripts and implicating memos, tracts from the US Constitution Articles or Geneva Convention edicts, do not come off as didactic lessons in politics or federal law. Basically, the writers did an incredible job bringing life to this foretelling of an impeachment trial to come.

Defense Counsel and House Prosecutor take turns extracting truths and motives from the witnesses who are called to the stage from the audience. Everyone from the likes of Cheney, Don Rumsfeld (actor and SFGlide Ensemble member Allen L. Roland), and John Yoo (acted by Bay Area theatre regular and ACT vet George Q. Nguyen). Yoo [against whom demonstrations are currently being held regarding his professorship at UC Berkeley] defends his so-called Torture Memo. Except for Cukor as Bush, what works in the actors’ favor is that they refrain from outright imitations of these very public figures, hence making them three dimensional. We get that each defendant sincerely believes, as do myopic fanatics of all stripes, that what he did was for the safety of America and Americans, glossing over facts that prove that he lied to the American people.

The prosecutor calls witness for the prosecution, El Masri (bearded California native and activist Raul Delarosa) to the stand. Masri, a German, born in Lebanon, recounts his kidnapping - - on US orders - - rendition, and torture, and years-long imprisonment without charge. When released, he was dumped on a Beirut street. He had tried to sue the US, but his case was denied. Subsequently, he was arrested for arson and pleaded that his imprisonment and torture severely compromised his mental and emotional state. Actor Delarosa says he “loves this play. It asks Congress to take their responsibilities seriously and reminds us that it’s never too late to throw the bums out of office.” A witness for the Defense was Theodore Olsen (Daryl Barnes), whose wife was killed on Flight 93. He testifies that she’d called him on her cell phone, and contends that the Bush Administration policies - - the Patriot Act - - are working because “not a single person has died since 9/11. (Barnes has a solid acting résumé, both in film and theatre.)

Former CIA chief George Tenet (effectively portrayed by Cuban native Raul Ramon Rubio) testifies that he knew Cheney had fudged reports, but couldn‘t stop him, and explained what he really said when “slam dunk’ was twisted to mean approval for action against Iraq. Valerie Plame (Leah Herman) voices her disgust and concerns over lies about her husband’s New York Times article and her outing by Cheney and the smear both she and her husband, Joe Wilson, suffered under the Bush Administration. She says that the impeachment trial must go through to restore the US to it beacon of freedom and democracy under the rule of law dictated by the US Constitution. (Leah Herman is a composed, Plame look-alike. Her acting credits range from New York to the Bay Area.)

Alexandar Cukor does George W. Bush, yet avoids making him a cartoon. Cukor simply gives an honest portrayal of Bush’s speech pattern and physicality. The second act opens with him sitting on the apron, fiddling with a remote, watching and commenting on a football game. On the stand, he implicates himself by stating that Congress is just as guilty as he is by voting for the war. In the end, Bush spurns the Defense Counsel’s closing argument and defends himself, using the old rhetoric to instill fear, wanting only to “pertect Amuricans by fightin’ turrists over there, so we don’t have to fight ‘em over here,” ending with a sincere “God bless Amurica!” The bailiff then calls for a vote. A program note advises “In the end, it’s up to each individual to decide where the truth lies.”

The ISA Theatre
655 DeHaro Street at 18th
San Francisco, Ca
Friday, May 23 and Saturday, May 24, at 8PM
22 Fillmore bus.
Tickets available at: ImpeachPlay.com