Washington, DC, April 29, 2009—Keegan Theatre presents the regional premiere of John Strand’s Lincolnesque, opening June 4 at Theatre on the Run in Arlington, VA. This is the third premiere that Keegan has presented to local audiences as part of its 2008-2009 11th anniversary season: earlier this season Keegan’s new island project presented the U.S. premiere of Liam Heylin’s Love, Peace & Robbery and the regional premiere of Timothy Findley’s Elizabeth Rex, which closed in April at Church Street Theater. “We feel it’s important to keep our programming diverse and unexpected,” explains Mark A. Rhea, Keegan founder and producing artistic director. “As a theater company and a group of artists, we are committed to producing raw, intimate takes on familiar and great works like Glengarry and Cuckoo’s Nest, as well as to tackling new and exciting works by artists who have come to our attention because of their unique voice or take on the human condition. Lincolnesque is a perfect example of this kind of opportunity for Keegan.”
Obviously, the 200th birthday of Lincoln provided a great tie-in for Keegan to produce the show in 2009, and Rhea believes that audiences will relish the experience of this fresh look at the Washington DC political scene and the echoes of Lincoln’s legendary oratory skills that are woven throughout the script.
“Lincolnesque is really a love story set in the city that the rest of America loves to hate,” says playwright John Strand. “Politics is never absent, but it is only the frame for the story. What matters in delivering the story are the actors, four good ones, if possible, and that is precisely what Mark Rhea and the Keegan Theater offered. Good acting has been the hallmark of their shows, and after the first read-through, I knew it would be again with this one. No playwright can ask for more than that. I rewrote portions of the play for this production, hoping to tailor it a bit to the intimate space and to the talents of the cast. The results, I hope, will please.”
Lincolnesque is directed by Mark A. Rhea and features Keegan regulars Peter Finnegan, Michael Innocenti, Susan Marie Rhea, and Stan Shulman. Set, lights and sound design: Rich Montgomery. Costume Design: Erin Nugent. Properties: Sheri S. Herren and Megan Thrift.
ABOUT THE PLAY:
Our nation’s capital. Two brothers. Leo, a Capitol Hill speechwriter struggling to stay employed, and Francis, a psychiatric outpatient convinced that he is the reincarnation of the 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln.. Leo’s employer, a stunningly mediocre congressman, looks headed for defeat in his re-election bid. But when Francis secretly takes over the speechwriting, the congressman starts sounding heroic, even inspiring. Could it be a renaissance in American politics? A seriously comic look at love and strategy in a city so desperately sane that madness may be the remedy.
“Never becoming preachy, clever enough to pass for cynical but also so subtly moving that its emotional payoff comes as a surprise, John Strand’s new comedy is a political fantasy, a notoriously difficult genre, and it works, [presenting] politics in our nation’s capital with a kind eye for human foibles and an unerring sagacity…. The play flirts with a serious debate on madness as a social construct, as a defense against madness and cruelty on a larger scale. But it remains a comedy, albeit a deadly serious one…. LINCOLNESQUE offers no easy answers. It simply lets us laugh as we begin to grapple with some truly horrifying questions.”
- Miami New Times
“John Strand’s beyond-smart-and-clever new play is a fascinating and philosophical exploration of what it takes to survive in an insane world; when and by what means we check out; what is truly important; and what is wrong with politics and, by extension, America. Strand manages to imbue his characters with humanity and the ability, however obliquely, to address these issues.”
- San Diego News
