Theatrical Speculation About the Brothers Booth - An Error of the Moon

Edwin and John Wilkes Booth - brothers, rivals, broken on the wheel of history and their strange temperaments... This is the theme of Luigi Creatore's one-act play, which I attended tonight on Theatre Row in Manhattan, at the Beckett Theatre.  A talented cast of four young actors provided vivid characterizations under the direction of Kim Weild.  But perhaps the play itself was not as strong as their performances.

The theatrical conceit is that the elderly Edwin Booth has died and is in the process of passing from life to death - in that lengthy moment when one's life flashes before one's eyes - finding himself in a typical theater dressing room of the type he's used so often through his lengthy career, as he reviews that history.  In his mind's eye are his wife, his brother, and a variety of individuals impersonated by a third actor.  Erik Heger is striking as Edwin Booth - tall, handsome, commanding, but tortured by doubts about his wife's faithfulness and suspicious and jealous of his handsome younger brother.  Margaret Copeland as Mary Devlin Booth does a superb job of playing wounded innocence and high-mindedness, and Andrew Veenstra captures the mercurial John Wilkes.  Brian Wallace is the talented utility player in every role from a fellow actor of Edwin, a fellow conspirator of John Wilkes, a union army officer, a stagehand....

The author speculates that John Wilkes had Edwin clued in at all stages of his various conspiracies to smuggle medical supplies to the Confederate army, to kidnap Lincoln, and at the end to assassinate him.  Edwin never quite believes that John Wilkes actually did or intended to do any of this, in this speculative account, and then suffers enormous anguish and recrimination when John Wilkes actually kills Lincoln and Edwin believes he could have persuaded him against this course of action had he taken him more seriously.  I found it intriguing and well-acted.  My theater-going companion thought it went on too long and became repetitious.  I didn't find it so, although my interest did lag at a few points.

I would certainly be interested in seeing any or all of these actors again, as each made a distinctively positive contribution to the evening, although my favorite was young Mr. Veenstra, whose passionate personification of John Wilkes Booth made the great assassin a most likeable fellow.  (And I say this with the sincerity of somebody who has been a Lincoln fan from childhood onwards...)

Comments

[Art Leonard]

When I wrote the above, I hadn't realized I was seeing a preview. Perhaps the script will be tightened before formal opening on August 30. I think the performances could hardly be bettered.