Conversations in Tusculum

Conversations in Tusculum
The Public Theater
March 9, 2008 7pm
FF6 with Cousin Ann
Play written and directed by Richard Nelson

Tusculum is play about power, dictatorship, war, murder, and the powerlessness of men who once had power. It is a play about today and yesterday.

Brutus and Cassius (Aidan Quinn and David Strathairn) are both men (figuratively) castrated by Caesar, who has taken Brutus's mother (Maria Tucci) and sister (Cassius's wife) as his mistresses. They have each been pardoned by Caesar, too, and are now reluctantly indebted to him. So, they retire to a villa in Tusculum and rant ineffectually about the man-god to whom they cannot refuse anything. Also there is Brutus's friend the philosopher Cicero (Brian Dennehy), a man recently bereaved of his daughter, trapped in grief and in the midst of a divorce from his child-bride. For comic relief, the actor Syrus (Joe Grifasi) is a roving houseguest amongst them.

Brutus has married his cousin Porcia (Gloria Reuben) the daughter of Cato, who killed himself rather than be Caesar's minion, but Brutus weakly claims that he loves her; this is not his attempt at protest.

Throughout, these men are trapped in a web of inaction, accepting appointments from Caesar and incapable of cutting the strings from their arms that he uses to dangle them and joust them against each other. They are humiliated and helpless, unable to refuse Caesar, in awe of him even as they hate him. Cassius becomes a broken man, while Brutus moves from self-hating and possibly suicidal to cold and ironic.

In the end, they must accept that the republic as they knew it is dead, never to come again. And in this acceptance, something is born anew in Brutus. A reclaiming of himself, a gigantic moment that starts out so small, just there in Tusculum, under the trees, at dinner with friends and lamp-light, when an idea is shared, an ideology, that Brutus has which will forever change the future and rewrite Caesar's history.

When I bought my membership to the Public this year, the conversation went like this:

Public Rep: You should know that the Brian Dennehy fans are snapping up memberships as fast as they can in order to get tickets ahead of the public to Tusculum.
Me: Really?
Public Rep: It's a deluge.
Me: Seriously?
Public Rep: I know!
Me: There was an actor in it I really wanted to see, but I'm blanking--
Public Rep: David Straithairn?
Me: I like him, but I don't think so...
Public Rep: Hmm...
Me: Hmm. (It was Aidan Quinn.)

So, membership bought and off I went to Tusculum, where it turns out the Dennehy fans are right on the mark. Who knew? (Well, them, obviously.) But now I know, too. The movie acting Mr. Dennehy does doesn't begin to clue you into how good he is onstage. (Nor does that commercial where he's walking along a rocky beach and keeps turning around because he's just thought of something more to say...) He even had a monologue directed at a photograph that was believable, and I think we all know how difficult it is to convincingly talk at objects onstage since we all do it so often in our homes...

Watching these actors lounge around in their 1940's costumes (no explanation for that in the notes, but maybe togas would be distracting?), these talented actors joined together in this play, I could have eavesdropped for hours. Mr. Strathairn does broken so well. Mr. Quinn found an eloquence in Brutus's frustration, being caught between not just Republic and Caesar but also wife and mother.

Gloria Reuben, also wonderful, understated, loving, but strong enough to make it clear why Brutus was so caught between her and his mother.

Recently, someone said to me, "I don't see the point of theater. I'd rather go see a film where it's been edited to be perfect. Why would you want to see something that wasn't perfect?" I told her that sometimes theater is perfect, and that's the most beautiful thing about it, catching that rare perfection that is made more wonderful by the fact that it is live.

Last night was perfect.