 Fairfax Studio, The Arts Centre
(Until
July 5)
The best of Peter Morgan’s screenplays (particularly
The Queen and The Last King
of Scotland) have been about powerful people cultivating a
calculatedly benign image. Now, in his
first play, based on the famous 1977 interview between David Frost and ex-President
Richard Nixon, he adopts a similar scenario.
After 35 years, the ‘Watergate’ scandal is
legendary, but for anyone not familiar with the background, Morgan cleverly incorporates
details through pro and anti Nixon narrators, who step in and out of the
action.
The first act concerns Frost (John Adam), a
seemingly lightweight talk-show host nearly loosing the interview, while the
isolated Nixon (Marshall Napier) tempted by the huge appearance fee, sees it as
an opportunity to exonerate himself rather than make the expected apology.
Morgan’s slant on history explores the
characteristics of the people concerned, and the impression he creates of Nixon
is a soft one. In spite of his betrayal of public office, Nixon emerges as an almost
tragic figure, felled by pride and poor judgement during the interview as much
by the poor judgement he showed in office.
As Nixon, Napier gives an impression rather
than an impersonation of the man, and is fascinating as a character convinced of
his respectability and confident his lies are truths.
The fateful interviews themselves are re-enacted,
while projected by mini camera onto a screen half the size of the stage; and as
Frost reveals Nixon’s true part in the cover-up, Napier recaptures Nixon’s barely
concealed panic, which is magnified by the camera. Although he is acting on the
stage below, you can’t take your eyes off the screen performance.
Adam brings out the lucky streak that most
people saw in Frost; calm, immaculately dressed, and an outsider himself; while
Teague Rook as the anti-Nixon narrator, Jim Reston Jnr, helps establish the
hostility many felt toward Nixon at the time.
Roger Hodgman’s production uses a simple
but effective set, with the huge television screen triumphantly dominating the
two people it made in one instance famous, the other, notorious.
Photo: Jeff Busby
www.mtc.com.au
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