I recently saw The City of Conversation, now running in at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center in New York until July 6 (extended). The play, by Anthony Giardina, chronicles a liberal Georgetown political hostess and her relationship with her family, starting with the Carter administration in 1979. At that time, we are not only introduced to Hester, hostess to some of DC’s most prominent people, but also her sister (whom she treats more or less like a slave), her son, Colin, and her soon-to-be daughter-in-law, Anna, whose politics lean more towards what we now call the Tea Party than her liberal, perhaps overly progressive views.
A clip of the play via the Lincoln Center YouTube page
Anna shows that she can be “one of the boys,” talking about politics with older senators in the study (where the entire play is set. The theatre is quite intimate and the entire audience has a perfect view of the stage) rather than spending time with the female spouses in another part of the house. She even smokes cigars. Needless to say, she ends up quite successful in a 1980s sort of way when the play reopens in second act, which takes place during the Regan administration in 1987. By then, Anna and Colin have married and they have a six year old boy, Ethan, whom Hester takes care of after school. The kid is dressed in a private school uniform, but in typical 80s kid brattiness, run around the house, throwing “outside toys” around. Hester is, at the time, working on a letter to be published in newspapers encouraging the defeat of a candidate that is possibly going to be nominated to the Supreme Court. Anna and Hester’s son, on the other hand, are working FOR the nomination. Conflict arises, and Hester and her son’s family are no longer in contact. The play concludes in 2009 on the eve of Barack Obama’s first inaugural gala. Ethan is now grown up, out and brings his boyfriend to meet Hester and to try to work things out.
The play is not really about politics, but family conflict and expectations. Hester gives off the vibe of a Tiger Mom (if non-Asian mothers can be Tiger Moms), directing her son in the right path, only to have him become what is the opposite of her, causing many issues with the family. Hester put her work priorities first, even forcing her views onto her family, which caused her son to become rebellious and become right wing. The moral of the story is that family should be put first and that parents shouldn’t mold their kids into their own image. Kids are individuals, after all.
Tickets for The City of Conversation are available online and are $87 US.
