Here in America: A small London theatre punches above its weight

Real-life political clashes have proved fine dramatic fodder for Britain’s leading playwrights in recent years. Peter Morgan’s 2006 play Frost/Nixon was based on the interviews the former president gave following the Watergate scandal, while in 2021 James Graham’s Best of Enemies dramatised the televised political debates between Gore Vidal and William F Buckley Jr.

Veteran political dramatist David Edgar now turns to the falling-out between playwright Arthur Miller and director Elia Kazan amid the febrile anti-communist mood of 1950s America. When Kazan was subpoenaed and called upon to “name names” by the House Un-American Activities Committee or risk being blacklisted from Hollywood, his decision to inform left Miller disgusted. Kazan had previously directed Death of a Salesman to great acclaim and, as Here in America posits, the pair had been like “brothers”. They didn’t speak for 10 years.

It’s certainly a fascinating and fertile subject matter: this feud between two greats of theatre and film had great artistic consequences. Miller was inspired to write The Crucible about the Salem witch-trials – a clear allegory for McCarthyism and the effects of wrongful accusation – while Kazan’s 1954 film On the Waterfront, where Marlon Brando’s dockworker stands up to a corrupt union by informing, won eight Oscars. Meanwhile, Marilyn Monroe, who both men were involved with, was a central figure during all of this. Miller used his engagement to Monroe as political capital when he himself was hauled in front of the HUAC – a speech that is reenacted compellingly here.

Edgar, who has written more than 60 plays since 1970, has managed to cram all this history – albeit with some not very subtle exposition – into a nifty 80-minute four-hander comprising Michael Aloni’s Art, Shaun Evans’s Gadg (Kazan), Faye Castelow’s Day (Kazan’s wife) and Jasmine Blackborow’s Miss Bauer (Monroe). Imagining the showdown between the two men at Kazan’s house in 1952, Edgar asks questions about betrayal, a theme that plagued Miller throughout his works. Both men had already betrayed their wives through infidelity. Should Kazan stay loyal to communists who had previously betrayed him? Will Miller betray Kazan by publicly denouncing him as a traitor?

The push and pull between the four actors, almost like they’re in a dance, is captivating to watch. The intimate 180-seat Orange Tree space proves the perfect setting for these subtle psychological dynamics to play out: a glance of admonishment here, and a raised eyebrow of disbelief there convey hidden meanings and breathe life into speeches that might otherwise feel overly dense and stuffy.

Evans’s Gadg seems hesitant about the decision he has to make but withers under pressure from his more opinionated and assertive wife, physically leaning on her for support before he gives testimony to the HUAC. When Art relays his intentions with The Crucible, Day fierily argues with him while Gadg can only look on dumbstruck. And when Art himself has moments of doubt, Blackborow’s Marilyn is there to rally him. “The man I want to be with is the man who tells the truth,” she says.

As for Marilyn, Blackborow deliberately gives us a sketch of the woman, as versions of how Art and Gadg saw her at that time. Similarly to the “flashbacks” in Death of a Salesman, she appears as a memory or as an imagined presence interjecting in the conversation. With Gadg – with whom she had a sexual relationship – she is more sultry, pulling him between her legs and grabbing his face. With Art, she is a thrilling whirlwind but also vulnerable and bashful, gazing up at him with gooey-eyed admiration.

Here, then, is another example of the Orange Tree punching above its weight. The minimal staging devices largely seem sophisticated, with blocks seamlessly shifting the scene from a park bench to a living room to a courtroom. Black leaves litter the stage and the stars of the American flag light up the floor during the hearings.  “I had this thought,” Art explains about the Salem witch trials, “that if we came to understand what happened then, then we might start to understand what’s happening in the here and now.” From the banning of books in schools to the links between McCarthy and Trump, the comparisons Edgar invites us to make with the state of modern-day America are all too clear.

Until oct 19; orangetreetheatre.co.uk