Joseph Hullett's literate script features articulate, forceful characters locked in debate over abortion.
October 18, 2001
By ERIC
MARCHESE
Special to The Register
Without sacrificing dramatic impact, Joseph Hullett has packed a lot into his political drama "Confirmation," which runs exactly two hours including intermission. At The Chance Theater in Anaheim Hills, the piece's mapping out of a particular incident in our nation's capital is complex, tracing the cause and effect, effect and cause of the story's various players. Yet Hullett's script walks the fine line between clarity and density.
The storyline seems basic enough: There's a vacancy on the Supreme Court, and President Bill Dixon has proposed a candidate - Solomon P. Cohen (Kim Kiedrowski), a professor he had at law school. The court is split on abortion; the conservative Dixon knows that Cohen is a staunch abortion opponent. All that remains is final confirmation by the Senate.
As "Confirmation" opens, it has been leaked to the press that 30 years earlier, Cohen and his girlfriend aborted their unwanted pregnancy. The woman, Cailin O'Casey (Myrna Niles), later gave birth to the National Women's Plurality, a politically powerful women's movement, so the news is explosive, and "Confirmation" follows the conflict from every conceivable angle - from the press to the president's office, from the Senate to the NWP to Cohen himself.
Hullett's smart, literate script, directed by Jocelyn Brown, may leave you breathless. The text, encapsulating 30 years of abortion debate, reveals how vicious political infighting can get, how quicksand-like is the national stage and how power can shift in a split second.
Hullett creates a gallery of fascinating characters who are loquacious and voraciously intelligent. The NWP's powerhouse leader, Jeri Ransom, is portrayed by Bethany Prestigiacomo as headstrong and ruthless, able to use her sexual charm to manipulate both men and women. Equally sleazy is Tony Howley as a Pulitzer-chasing reporter who doubles as Ransom's speechwriter and hatchet man.
Kiedrowski is too soft-spoken and professorial as the professedly moderate Cohen; the approach undermines the script's fireworks. The same can be said of the mumbling Niles.
Paul Castellano paints a magnificent portrait of supreme bravado and widespread influence as a powerful, liberal Southern senator. Andrea Freeman is utterly credible as a naive young woman in the NWP whose loyalties are torn between O'Casey and Ransom. Casey Long is slickly confident as the president's chief of staff, and Bob Campbell, heard only in voiceover, gives the president a distinctly Nixonian personality.