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What do you get when a liberal, obviously embittered playwright sets out amidst the second term of the second Bush Administration to write a political satire about a conservative, buffoon-ish, sitting president whose poll numbers rival "Ghandi's cholesterol numbers" and a lesbian speech writer who wants to marry her partner? You get "November," an already dated-feeling and minor play by the whip-smart David Mamet that plays for mostly cheap laughs and a handful of clever one-liners. [Spoiler alert: We're now going to reveal several of the play's plot points.]
A.C.T.'s production stars Andrew Polk as President Charles Smith (a role originated on Broadway by Nathan Lane in January '08, when this play perhaps seemed a bit more nervously fresh), an apparent Republican who got lucky the first time around, but just days before his second election is staring at extremely low popularity figures and empty campaign coffers. In order to fund a presidential library, he seizes an opportunity to extort $200 million from the turkey producers of America by threatening to give a speech making the case for eating fish on Thanksgiving instead.
Enter the lesbian speech writer (ably played by René Augesen), freshly returned from China with an adopted baby and a possible case of bird flu (another joke that feels already like an anachronism). Hilarity ensues as she tries to extort an end-run gay marriage ceremony out of the President in exchange for the speech she's going to write. After several plot machinations, the speech she ends up writing is more of a tide-turning campaign speech meant to energize his flagging bid for a second term. The play then wraps up with a quick farcical moment involving a Native American lobbyist, and gay marriage advocates score a win at the expense of several dead turkeys.
All-in-all, this is a play that feels a touch hokeyer and more heavy-handed than a later-season episode of "The West Wing." The cast works well with the material, and in particular Anthony Fusco nails many of the best jokes as the president's lawyer (e.g. "We can't build a fence to keep out the illegal immigrants." President: "Why not?" Lawyer: "Because we need the illegal immigrants to build the fence.") And the set features a lovely and enormous Oval Office replica designed by Erik Flatmo that is impressive in its attention to detail. But if you're a fan of David Mamet, this isn't a play that stands up to the verbal acuity or acidity of "Glengarry Glen Ross" or "Oleanna." It's more of a curiosity that will looked back upon for its cuteness in the context of a long-gone political moment, and in San Francisco it comes off like preaching stale rhetoric to an all-too-satisfied liberal choir.
November is playing through November 22nd at A.C.T. Get tickets here.
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Mamet isn't a liberal. he came out of the closet as a conservative last year.