Donald Trump can’t let Jeb Bush alone.
The businessman-cum-politician makes a special appearance near the end of Sarah Ruhl’s new political-dynasty drama “Scenes From Court Life,” castigating him during the Republican debates.
We all recall Trump’s attacks, but Ruhl doesn’t bother to repeat the obvious catcalls, such as “low-energy.” She wants to remind us how Trump went after Jeb’s father and brother. She’s already reminded us how George W. Bush’s impulsive decision to run for governor of Texas complicated his younger brother’s attempt to win the same post in Florida.
She mirrors the Bush brothers’ battles with episodes from the reign of Charles I and Charles II in Stuart-period Great Britain. There again, the issues aren’t about what one’s constituents (or royal subjects) think of you. It’s about how you’ve been treated by your father.
“Scenes From Court Life, or the whipping boy and his prince,” is receiving its world premiere at the Yale University Theater through Oct. 22. It’s a cutting-edge season-opener for the Yale Repertory Theatre. In this politically provocative show, the celebrated writer of “Passion Play,” “Eurydice” and “The Clean House” sets up historical contrasts that explore the concepts of brotherhood, friendship, rivalry and parental expectations, within the greater context of famous powerful families. In both of the eras that the playwright examines, there are efforts at leadership, selfish displays of bravado at the expense of others, and crushing humiliations.
The play sets up its chosen style immediately, as a courtly court dance morphs into a Texas-style country-pop line dance. Throughout the show, actors don and doff just enough clothing to suggest that the setting has moved from mid-17th century England to late 20th/early 21st century America. It features a busy cast of eight actors (one of whom, Keren Lugo, performed in an earlier version of the play, as part of an NYU student actor project), plus four others who act as bodyguards and furniture movers.
In many ways, “Scenes From Court Life” resembles a modern Elizabethan masque, that ingenious party-procession-play mash-up that delighted royal audiences for generations. One of the masters of that form, Ben Jonson, is mentioned in “Court Life” as “that idiot,” but the play does him proud. It contains comedy (including the obligatory stand-up act of egregious George W. Bush misstatement and phrase-manglings), tragedy, mythology, ceremony, fashion, pageantry, poetry and song. Mark Wing-Davey, the renowned British director whose previous Yale Rep credits include Ruhl’s “Passion Play in 2008, keeps the scenes sharp and distinct, with clear transitions despite the hectic shedding of outergarments.
The set design is clean and open. Actors grab costumes and props from a series of closed doors. Those props include such unpredictable objects as tennis balls, a silver top of a walking stick that comes unstuck, and a bucket of blood. The sound design by Shane Rettig is just as tricky: soundtracking everything from a tennis game to a decapitation.
The play doesn’t just feel current, it feels local. Both the British and American parts feature jokes about New Haven. “I was a history major in New Haven,” a laid-back George W. Bush explains. “That’s what people call Yale when they feel more comfortable in a Texas line dance than in the Eastern establishment.” He uses different gestures and mannerisms but lets each character directly inform the other. Danny Wolohan is the Jeb to Keller’s George W. and the Barnaby to his Charles II. Barnaby is portrayed as a best friend and confidant but also the designated “whipping boy” who must endure physical punishment whenever the prince does something wrong. A metaphor is extended by which Jeb Bush must suffer for the bad decisions of his brother.
There’s a whole other metaphor built into the show, where the respective fathers of the “princes” have a special relationship with their advisers. As “Groom of the Stool,” Jeff Biehl must wipe the ass of King Charles I (T. Ryder Smith). Biehl also plays Karl Rove to Smith’s George H.W. Bush.
The comparisons seem funny rather than forced. “Scenes From Court Life” has a lot to say about children of power and privilege.
This is a show about kings in their underwear, about victories ruined by a parent’s thoughtless remarks about family arguments and bedroom outbursts. “Scenes From Court Life” is scenes from family life. That makes for much better theater than any Trump cameo.
“SCENES FROM COURT LIFE, or the whipping boy and his prince” is at the Yale University Theater, 222 York St., New Haven, through Oct. 22. Performances are Tuesday through Saturday at 8 p.m., with 2 p.m. matinees on Oct. 15,19 and 22. Tickets are $44 to $88. 203-432-1234, yalerep.org.
