House Arrest

Reconstructing Anna Deavere Smith’s, deconstruction of the American presidency in HOUSE ARREST, one of her many slide projections comes to mind. This one reads "Does a tree make a sound?" One can only answer, yes if there’s someone to hear it. Similarly, as to her question, what does the role of the American President mean?, the answer again requires the act of observation.

It’s the way we observe the man in the white house, his virtual fishbowl existence that Ms Smith calls HOUSE ARREST. While her earlier works focused on events, such as the Rodney King verdict in Los Angeles and the clash between the Jews and the Blacks in Crown Heights Brooklyn, this journalistic expose looks at the drama of the American presidency and the way the media presses on it.

This time, the subject, ideology, and the setting, the wooden "o", the stage in its pure state, are too vast and undefined. There’s just no tension. And most of the material is old hat. Of the 400+ interviews Ms Smith conducted in gathering the material for this play, too many that we get to hear focus on Jefferson’s affair with his slave. Now you just can’t blame the press for the DNA test! It’s not that they created the event, they way they did with Monica.

And is it President Clinton who’s being quoted with, "It’s too bad when innocent middle class people who work in the white house can be bankrupted by the political system."? Sorry. The primary color for the American President has never been innocence or middle class. HOUSE ARREST makes for a long story and not necessarily a good one.

That’s This Week on Broadway. I’m Isa Goldberg.