Frost/Nixon Opens At The Vancouver Playhouse
Canadian Premiere of the Peter Morgan Play Opens With a Whimper.
Sep 19, 2008
A Broadway smash in 2007, Frost/Nixon has had its Canadian premiere at the Vancouver Playhouse in a co-production with the Canadian Stage Company in Toronto. A film version of the play directed by Ron Howard will open in December 2008 starring the play's original stars, Frank Langella and Michael Sheen, as Nixon and Frost, respectively.
David Frost was a well-known talk show host in England and Australia, who in 1977 decided to embark on a momentous interview with former President Richard Nixon. The play begins with Nixon’s resignation after the Watergate scandal and his subsequent illness. David Frost longs to improve his public image, and decides to approach Nixon about an exclusive interview.
With the help of Bob Zelnick, Jim Reston and John Birt, Frost wins the interview after a bidding war. David Frost and Richard Nixon sit down to talk, on camera, in three two-hour blocks from which the interview will be compiled. Nixon seems to hold the upper hand through most of the interviews, until Frost begins to slowly peel away at Nixon until he admits his guilt.
The Vancouver Playhouse/Canadian Stage Company co-production has some fine elements in it, but unfortunately, all the pieces do not add up to a whole.
The cast is generally strong, with one major exception. David Storch, a well-known Toronto actor, stars as David Frost, and while his performance is somewhat of an exaggerated portrayal of the talk show host, his work carries the play from start to finish. Damien Atkins, Michael Healey and Ari Cohen as John Birt, Bob Zelnick and Jim Reston, offer very strong supporting performances as Frost’s associates. Another highlight is the work of Tom McBeath as Nixon’s aide, Jack Brennan. He is a pillar of strength to the fragile former President, and shares his vulnerability and care for the President throughout, without coddling him.
Based on the actual events leading up to and including the famous interviews, Peter Morgan, who makes his stage writing debut with Frost/Nixon, crafts a fascinating script with truth and care.
Helmed by Ted Dykstra, the play is slick and a fast one hour and forty minutes. While his direction of each scene is simple and effective, one major hiccup occurs consistently.
That hiccup is Len Cariou as Richard Nixon. A Broadway legend, Cariou is not short of major theatre credits, including the original Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street (he played the title role opposite Angela Lansbury). In the role of Richard Nixon, Cariou only scratches the surface of the character. He makes no attempt, thankfully, to imitate Nixon's signature voice, but he never achieves any sort of regalness or power as the former leader of the free world.
One of the most terrifying moments for an audience member is when an actor has what is typically classified as a "deer in the headlights" moment when they can't remember their next line, and sadly, Cariou has numerous moments like that when the script jumps from asides from another actor back to him. In two cases, Cariou had to be saved by his fellow actors in the scene with him. These momentary lapses in memory could not be expected by someone with such an extensive resume as Cariou, and takes the power and momentum of the scene right out.
On the positive side, as Nixon admits his guilt, Cariou's face is shown on a screen at the back of the stage, leaving only his sad, tired eyes showing, which is the first sincere, truthful moment in his performance. Pity that this moment comes with only a few minutes to go before the end of the play. We see him at his most vulnerable, most fragile, but it is too little, too late. It could have been opening night jitters or simply a lack of rehearsal and preparation time, but with a play as well written and constructed as Frost/Nixon, you are only as strong as your weakest link, and in this case, the weakest link is Len Cariou.
Patrick Clark's set is gorgeous, using simple furniture to shift from scene to scene. Alan Brodie's lighting design is wonderful, and used perfectly in scenes and with the various asides throughout.
One of the design highlights is Jamie Nesbitt's projections, used to create everything from wallpaper on a hotel room wall, to the Presidential office. The only criticism would be that some of the images, when blown up to fill the stage, aren't as crisp and clear as they could be. It's a minor point, but when almost all of the images and projections are top notch, it is a shame to have one or two be sub-par.
When the Frost/Nixon interviews aired in 1977, over 40 million viewers tuned in to see it. While those numbers won't and can't, logistically be repeated during this production, it is a very worthy play and production that is let down by one of its stars, and is a real shame. Like Nixon's political career where so many believed in him and were counting on him to step up, we have to resign ourselves to the fact that sometimes, not everything can work out the way we would like it to.
- Frost/Nixon
- by Peter Morgan
- Directed by Ted Dykstra
- A co-production between the Vancouver Playhouse and the Canadian Stage Company.
- *** (out of five)
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