Beau Willimon and Farragut North
Beau Willimon and I had coffee a couple of weeks ago to discuss our upcoming production of his terrific new play FARRAGUT NORTH. We met in Midtown NY at Le Pain Quotidien and we had a very productive conversation about his new political drama. We are both looking forward to working together on the Washington/Baltimore Metro area premiere.
I learned that Beau has first hand knowledge of political campaigns. While an undergraduate at Columbia in 1998, he volunteered for Senator Charles E. Schumer’s Senate campaign against the Republican incumbent, Alfonse D’Amato. He was also a junior staff member for Howard Dean. So he comes to his observations about political campaigns honestly. His best friend is Jay Carson, who was Governor Dean’s twenty something press secretary in 2004 . . . and in many ways the inspiration for the play.
“I don’t know if I’m critiquing politics as much as being accurate and honest” . . .Willimon said in a recent NY Times interview. “Everyone knows to a certain extent that there’s a lot of nasty and duplicitous and unsavory stuff in a campaign, but some people might be surprised at how nasty things are behind the scenes.”
Beau’s agent sent me an early draft of the script in August and I was blown away by the story. I knew immediately that I had to direct it. It has everything that I look for in a good script: a powerful, timely story; great conflict, terrific dialogue, strong, believable characters and an important message. FARRAGUT NORTH is a signature CATF play. It provides “red meat” for the CATF core audience. I am thrilled that we received the rights to produce the MID-ATLANTIC PREMIERE.
FARRAGUT NORTH is a fresh take on old political tricks. Beau Willimon lifts the veil on American Politics. Washington Post theater critic, Peter Marks said in his review of the recent NY premiere: “If the ‘West Wing’ offered up politics as an inspirational highway to hope, Beau Willimon’s spicy, new campaign stage dramedy, FARRAGUT NORTH, returns us to those comforting, cutthroat side streets”.
The play charts the painfully inevitable fall of Stephen, a 25-year-old press secretary working on the presidential campaign of a leading democrat . . . set in Iowa . . . its caucus time . . . and votes need to be counted. Stephen is a whip-smart and cocky, wunderkind who is so chummy with reporters that he thinks he can manipulate them with his charm and charisma. But there is a chill in the Iowa landscape . . . a storm is coming.
Willimon, like Dietz, is a terrific storyteller with an original voice. He has written an aggressive drama that will engage you with the power of story. The play is a potent reminder that politics is a high-stakes game where one wrong liaison can finish you off.
—Ed Herendeen