- JENNY GRAHAM
- THE GREAT SOCIETY Historical drama that looks uncomfortably current.
There's no way to ask or answer this without sounding disingenuous, so I'm just going to dive right in: When the news is filled with grotesque images of police officers beating and killing black citizens in real time, what is the appropriate way to look at a work of art that depicts police officers beating and killing black citizens on a stage? Does a 1:1 correlation with the inestimably worse events going on in the streets mean the art is (a) nobly doing its job by holding a mirror to society, (b) a current-events coincidence, or (c) obscene?
This question lodged in my mind many times during The Great Society, the new Seattle Rep production of Robert Schenkkan's mammoth, three-hour sequel to All The Way, his mammoth, three-hour play about the Johnson administration, but never more stickily than in the riot scenes…