NEW YORK—In politics, trust is everything. It’s more important than the issues, the policies, or even the candidate. Those who are perceived as no longer being trustworthy are quickly shown the door—the underlying point in the world premiere production of Beau Willimon’s brilliant look at political machinations, “Farragut North.”
Stephen Bellamy (John Gallagher, Jr.), communications director to a presidential candidate, is a rising political star. Only 25 years of age, he is an expert at dealing with the media and keeping a campaign moving smoothly. Currently he’s in Des Moines, Iowa, where his man Morris seems all but certain to begin a triumphant start on the road to the White House. Making things even more important to Stephen is the fact Morris is someone he truly believes in, a person who Stephen feels can aid the nation in its time of trouble and can really make a difference.
However, Stephen lets ego get in the way of common sense, when he takes a meeting with Tom Duffy (Isiah Whitlock, Jr.), the manager of a rival campaign, and then hesitates to tell his boss, Paul Zara (Chris Noth) about what transpired there. This causes Paul to question Stephen’s loyalty, thus making Stephen a liability.
As Stephen tries to make right his error in judgment, he begins to learn some harsh political realities. One such reality is that someone who used to happily work for you is now a threat and might take over your job. No one behind the scenes is indispensable in the fight to get a candidate elected.
Stephen Bellamy (John Gallagher, Jr.), communications director to a presidential candidate, is a rising political star. Only 25 years of age, he is an expert at dealing with the media and keeping a campaign moving smoothly. Currently he’s in Des Moines, Iowa, where his man Morris seems all but certain to begin a triumphant start on the road to the White House. Making things even more important to Stephen is the fact Morris is someone he truly believes in, a person who Stephen feels can aid the nation in its time of trouble and can really make a difference.
However, Stephen lets ego get in the way of common sense, when he takes a meeting with Tom Duffy (Isiah Whitlock, Jr.), the manager of a rival campaign, and then hesitates to tell his boss, Paul Zara (Chris Noth) about what transpired there. This causes Paul to question Stephen’s loyalty, thus making Stephen a liability.
As Stephen tries to make right his error in judgment, he begins to learn some harsh political realities. One such reality is that someone who used to happily work for you is now a threat and might take over your job. No one behind the scenes is indispensable in the fight to get a candidate elected.
Soon people Stephen thought were his friends either desert him, or set him straight on why they bothered to talk to him in the first place. (He fed them gossip from the campaign, and they gave the campaign favorable publicity, a point explained to him by a reporter for the New York Times.)
More than a look at the dark underbelly of politics where the unwritten code seems to be, “take down your opponents before they do the same to you—no matter whose side they’re on,” “Farragut North” is also a battle for one man’s soul and self-respect.
Stephen, originally someone perceived to be both tough and idealistic, is in reality so addicted to power that he is willing to compromise his supposedly all-important principles in order to stay in the thick of the campaign. As things become more and more desperate, Stephen comes dangerously close to breaking the cardinal rule of politics: nothing should be taken personally. But his need to prove himself “top dog” is so strong, he begins to strike out at people just for the sake of hurting them, instead of doing what’s best for the campaign, and for him personally. And in doing so, he just may drive away perhaps the one person who actually cares about him.
Gallagher is good as the earnest, all-too-cynical political powerhouse who has no real clue as to how the game is played, and can’t understand how he may lose everything he has worked so hard for. His frustration in losing control of the situation and helplessness to do anything about it make him a figure of pity, sympathy, and eventually contempt. While his tenaciousness is admirable, it also translates as his refusing to accept another important rule in the political sphere: there are second chances, but one must also know when to walk away. However, for Stephen, it becomes more a question of him winning, rather than the candidate—any candidate, as it turns out.
Noth and Whitlock are both quite believable as campaign mangers, each with their own operational style. Noth as Paul comes across as a battle-scarred political veteran, but one who remembers full well the man he was when he started in this business, and how he once faced the same test Stephen faces now. Yet Paul has his own skeleton in the closet, one that may ultimately be his undoing.
Whitlock nicely plays the character of Duffy, a smooth talking cobra, striking before a foe can mount a defense, while constantly manipulating the situation to turn things to his advantage. (He also has a sort of disarming honesty, which appears to make him less dangerous and cunning then he actually is.)
Doug Hughes directs the story well, bringing forth the individual passions and agendas that drive the various people in a political campaign. The play is also structured in a way where one doesn’t know who to trust, as the script is often several moves ahead of Stephen’s, and the audience’s, knowledge of what is really going on.
Perhaps most telling is the final scene in the play, a press conference where the message seems so simple and strong, yet so completely transparent, considering what has come before.
“Farragut North” presents an interesting lesson of the realities in politics, and should be required viewing for everyone who cares about the subject, no matter what their political affiliation.
Also in the cast are Kate Blumberg, Dan Bittner, Olivia Thirlby, and Otto Sanchez.
Farragut North
Presented by the Atlantic Theater Company
336 West 20th Street
Tickets: 212-279-4200 or www.ticketcentral.com
Information: www.atlantictheater.org
Running Time: Two Hours, 5 Minutes
Closes: Nov. 29
Judd Hollander is the New York correspondent for the London publication, The Stage.
