by Hadley Hury
ince its premiere at the Berkshire Theatre Festival in the summer
of 1993, Mark St. Germain’s Camping with Henry and Tom has regularly
made itself at home on regional and community theatre stages around
the country. It is making its Mid-South debut at the Little Theatre
at Theatre Memphis through Sunday, May 31st.
St. Germain has set the piece on the evening of July 24, 1921, using as his point of departure the fact that President Warren G. Harding, Henry Ford, and Thomas Edison did, indeed, take a camping trip near Licking Creek, Maryland. The playwright’s dramatic license takes over in having the three famous figures “escape” from the media- and Secret Service-thronged campsite; they barge off into the woods by themselves and become stranded for an overnight bout of philosophical – eventually personal, and frequently heated – discussion.
It’s just the sort of play that small theatres find attractive:
It’s inexpensive to produce and manageable in scale, requiring
only four actors (the three primary characters and one small supporting
role) and minimal scenic and technical design. In his first directing
effort at The Little Theatre, Bro. Matt Szatkowski (who is drama
program director at CBU) is able to give all his attention to
the actors, who make or break the capacity of this play to hold
our attention, entertain, and, occasionally, provide food for
thought. His leads – Greg Fletcher (Ford), David F. Diamond (Edison),
and Ron Gordon (Harding) – come through, giving in what is essentially
one long conversation shadings of both dramatic tension and comic
relief. On opening night, the ensemble performance had an engaging
watchability; the cast seemed to be discovering and shaping the
emphatic points in St. Germain’s script spontaneously and managing
to draw the audience into an impassioned consideration of these
early 20th century leaders’ ideas, visions, and frailties.
David F. Diamond and Ron Gordon
One performance is particularly compelling and, at times, superb. In what has to be, of recent years, one of the most vivifying arrivals on the Memphis theatre scene, Fletcher brings an eloquent dynamism to a portrayal of Henry Ford as mercurial but unrelenting, a bottom-lining visionary. Fletcher perfectly evinces Ford’s brilliance as an entrepreneur and his megalomania as a bullying imperialist. This is a man who has experienced being able, literally, to change the world. He lays out his ideas like parts on an assembly line and expects everyone not only to participate in his grand design but to be excited at the opportunity. Until one of his fellow campers reminds him of the fact near the shank end of their evening, he almost forgets that he’s human. Ford wanted to be president; Harding never did. St. Germain’s fictionalized “boys’ night out” weaves bits and pieces of speeches, writings, and interviews to contemplate what might have happened if each man had had his wish.
As another man who helped give birth to the century as we know it, Edison – played by Diamond with laconic humor and an air of self-effacing common sense – did indeed go camping annually with Ford. The summer of St. Germain’s setting, 1921, was Edison’s last such outing; we hear in his quiet exasperation and pithy retorts a commingled admiration for Ford’s vibrant can-do-ism and dismay at the moral weaknesses in his vision. As Harding, Gordon’s performance seemed still to have room for some fine-tunings of pace, but, overall, nicely evokes – in the role that has the most resonance in our age of tawdry sensationalism and media self-cannibalization – one of the most scandal-ridden presidents in history. St. Germain’s play doesn’t completely defray the popular image of Harding as a corrupt do-nothing, but it does, very interestingly, contribute historical, social, and political context for forming a more sympathetic understanding.
It is certainly possible to find in Camping parallels with our contemporary political culture, most notably in the debates between Ford and Harding over “values.” But pinning exact coordinates would prove a tedious contrivance and amuse only those who relish turning up every rock in their path to find a snake. The play is a good, small entertainment, and its enjoyment is probably best ensured by the audience joining in the spirit of its concept. Among the genre of “historical presumption” theatre, this is a pretty good “What If?” and more responsible than most. Although their getaway – this dark night of soul-baring exchanges – did not occur, the men’s ideas are represented without gross manipulation. St. Germain has created a dramatic context for considering the human nature of men behind our history and the history in the human nature of these men. n
Camping With Henry and Tom
Only through Sunday, May 31st
Little Theatre at Theatre Memphis
682-8323