Theatre Review by Ron Fassler . . .
Conceived and directed by Stephen Sachs, Fatherland is a powerful verbatim play that is currently at New York City Center Stage II through November 23. If you’re not familiar with the term verbatim, it means exactly what you think it does in the context of creating a play. “Every word is directly from a court transcript, from case evidence, or a public statement made by the actual people involved,” says Sachs. Its entire construction is built around the testimony of a son who turned his father in for his participation in the January 6 storming of the capitol in Washington, D.C. and testified against him in court.
According to Sachs, “It’s very hard to know what is true and what is false today. So, I feel like it’s our responsibility as artists to put the literal truth onstage.” Clocking in at seventy-five minutes, and by using their own words, the play takes you deep into the souls of its two main characters, here called Father (Ron Botitta) and Son (Patrick Keleher). A U.S. Attorney (Anna Khaja) and a Defense Attorney (Larry Poindexter) make up the rest of the four-person ensemble. The drama is taut, the feelings are real, and the experience is disturbing. That it’s all true only adds to the stakes and, with our current political situation so troubling, this is political theatre of honesty and integrity. Neither a lecture nor a polemic, it brought to mind Jack Webb’s old saying from the cop show Dragnet: “Just the facts, ma’am, just the facts.”
First done by the Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles, it’s been brought to New York intact, aided by the participation of the prolific producer Sonia Friedman, among its presenters. The cast are all repeating their performances here and they make for a tight team. In particular, the two leading roles of Father and Son, beautifully etched by Botitta and Keleher, both unknown to me. Botitta has extensive credits in film and television as well as stage work in L.A. and he is simply a revelation. You forget entirely this is an actor and you buy him completely as a man with little in life that makes him feel successful and worthy of his wife and child’s love and respect. He becomes a militant MAGA supporter and is willing to do anything that he believes is best for him, his family, and his country, even if it means taking the government by force. He drives from his home in Texas to the Capitol, mainly so he can bring his weaponry with him. He means business.
As the son, Patrick Keleher is totally believable as an eighteen-year-old, plumbing the depths of the character with aching pain. Only recently graduated from college, Keleher is an actor to watch. His dilemma over what is the right thing to do makes for an uneasy portrayal—a person in constant conflict with his thoughts and feelings. All the actors are aided immeasurably by there not being any soap box dialogue or speechifying because this is not the work of a playwright. These people are all speaking in their own words. It makes for an incredibly compelling piece of work.
Anna Khaja and Larry Poindexter expertly play the lawyers even if they remain somewhat on the outside of the play’s central action. But when in court they are front and center and present distinguishably. They strike the right tone under Sachs’s incisive direction. Production values are simple and first rate, from an open space designed by Joel Daavid, atmospheric lighting by Alison Brummer and pitch-perfect costuming by Danyele Thomas.
Co-founder of the Fountain for thirty-four years, Sachs is retiring as artistic director at the end of the year. He’s going out on a high and it’s commendable that the producers presenting Fatherland have stepped forward to make sure this worthy play is seen in New York. Go see it.
Fatherland is at New York City Center Stage II, 131 W. 55th Street, NYC. It is playing a limited engagement through November 23. For further information, please visit: https://www.fatherlandplay.com
Photos by: Maria Baranova.
Headline photo: Ron Botitta and Patrick Keleher.
