Theatre Intelligence
Red, White & Blacklisted: “Trumbo” Opens at Barrington Stage in Pittsfield
In this highly politicized season, Barrington Stage artistic director Julianne Boyd decided to open her 2008 season on February 14 with Trumbo, a play that explores how the United States government’s crackdown on dissent in the McCarthy era affected the blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo (who, apparently, liked to write in the bathtub.) The author of dozens of films including Kitty Foyle, and Roman Holiday, Trumbo, who died in 1976, is a hero for our times, according to Boyd. “He believed in the individual, usually in rebellion,” she says. “Defiance was a common theme in his work, whether it was Exodus or Spartacus or The Fixer. He had a razor sharp wit, took ‘no hostages,’ said what he thought at all times.”
Boyd thinks this two-man play, which was written by Trumbo’s son, Christopher, is especially relevant in light of the Patriot Act: “Every day, you hear about information or reports that the Bush Administration has not made public—see The New York Times story about the Rand Report. There’s a lot of cover-up, a lot of belief that government officials are not accountable to the people. And when people question them, they cry, “That person is not a patriot. Anyone against what I am saying is not a loyal American.”
To help put Dalton Trumbo’s life into perspective, Boyd has invited WAMC president Dr. Alan Chartock, a First Amendment expert, to moderate a post-play discussion on February 21. “Alan speaks up, the same way Dalton Trumbo did.” says Boyd. “He’s frank and always says what he thinks. I know this is a match!”
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