Good Bobby
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Franklin, Call
Photo by Ed Krieger
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By Ben Miles
When Robert F. Kennedy was an obedient son, his father--Kennedy patriarch, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.--referred to his third male scion as "Good Bobby." More than a few times, however, RFK has been characterized as a dichotomous personality, tilting on an axis: At one end of the polarity is Good Bobby; at the other end is Bobby-the-Bad.
Brian Lee Franklin's world premiere play,Good Bobby, in production at the Greenway Court Theatre through February 1, is a praiseworthy effort to integrate the purportedly distorted dimensions of Robert Kennedy's psyche into a whole and comprehensible human subject. Franklin's psychologically savvy script succeeds admirably in this task. What's more, Franklin's portrayal of RFK is stunningly canny. Not only does Franklin catch the nuances, inflections, and cadences of Kennedy's Cape Cod dialect with precision, his countenance, posture, and physique ring with historical authenticity.
Good Bobby begins in 1958. Senator John McClellan (William Stone Mahoney rendering a magisterial characterization) has appointed young Kennedy as chief counsel to the Army-McCarthy Hearings on organized crime. This is the venue of the legendary face-off between Robert Kennedy and Teamsters Union President, James R. (Jimmy) Hoffa (chillingly and charismatically channeled here by R.D. Call). Thanks to United States Senate transcripts and to Pierson Blaetz's intense direction, the encounter is vividly brought to life. The thick thread of contempt Kennedy and Hoffa held for one another is convincingly played out onstage, kinetically connecting us to this fascinating docudrama. The stakes are high, and we in the audience feel it in the same way that witnesses to those mid-century congressional proceedings likely experienced it. Franklin and Call's embodiment of these two uniquely ruthless characters is both emotional and magnetic.
We see Joe Kennedy (a notably subtle, yet formidable Steve Mendillo) pressuring Bobby to be the hatchet-man in John Kennedy's 1960 presidential campaign. We learn of Joe's insistence that 34 year-old Bobby--who had never even been to trail as a lawyer--be appointed attorney general in President Kennedy's administration. We get an ear full of Bobby's resentment and oedipal outbursts aimed at his father, Joe. And finally, we understand how RFK was tempered and transformed, not only by his brother's 1963 assassination, but also through his tribulations with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover as well as his checkered relationship with Martin Luther King, Jr.
In 1964, Bobby Kennedy ran for the U.S. Senate in New York. He seemed to be coming into his own by then. By early 1968 RFK had declared his candidacy for the office of President of the United States. His concern for racial justice; his opposition to the war in Vietnam; and his advocacy on behalf of those living in poverty came from what many considered to be Kennedy's genuine concern for peace, prosperity, and equal opportunity. And though we know how the story ends, thanks to Franklin's tautly crafted script, this retelling remains no less gripping.
James Eric and Victoria Bellocq's tripartite set design convincingly carries us from RFK's Washington D.C. office to the Kennedy estate, while Fritz Davis's sound and video design gives us sweeping audio-visual cues from the era. Further, Naila Aladdin Sanders' well-fitted costumes are period-appropriate displays, effectively evoking the epoch.
Moreover, Sile Bermingham's turns the character of RFK's personal secretary, Angie Novello, into a sentient and emotional gauge of the mounting dramatic pressure in this true-to -life theatrical replication. Further, Lisa Richards, as matriarch Rose Kennedy, is as credible as can be. Paul Marius as Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, Andrew Walker doing double-duty as George Fitzgerald and Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin, and Jim Metzler in the role of a cryptic C.I.A. operative each provide invaluable support performances.
The two-hour show, Good Bobby plays, through February 1, on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. There's a 4 p.m. performance on Sundays. The Greenway Court Theatre is located at 544 North Fairfax Avenue, Los Angeles. For reservations, dial (323) 655 - 7679, ext. 100. For more details, visit www.greenwayarts.org.
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