By Lucy Komisar
This play unintentionally exposes the mainstream political fakery about the January 6 protest by Trump supporters at the U.S. Capitol. And also the treachery of a son who turns in his father to the FBI even though he knows the father, distraught at a downturn costing his job, drinks, takes Zantac for anxiety and is prone to exaggerate.
Conceived and directed by Stephen Sachs, it is depicted as a true story. One would write a different review if it were staged as invented. The script is taut. The actors are fine. Ron Battitta does a strong portrayal of a tough, powerful, enraged father. Patrick Keleher is good as the son who starts as a rather mild fellow, not very smart, and then turns into a militant nemesis of his father.
But a play that pretends to truth has to be seen differently. There is an attempt to define the “anti-hero” as one of the white working-class thrown under the bus by the vagaries of capitalism. Father, 50, with white chin beard, had been an oil worker in Penang (Malaysia). When oil prices collapsed, he was layed off and moved to Texas.
The plays shows how he became a Trump supporter — there’s an audio of Trump: “We are taking back the country.” Since the Democrats have in decades since Bill Clinton shown no interest in the working class (Hillary called them a basket of deplorables) this is no surprise. The movement for Trump has been reinforced by the working class the corporate Democrats disparage.
The characters appear on a set which is just a few brown tables and chairs.
The son is 19, at community college. He and father are singing a football song. He doesn’t seem too bright. Then we learn that the kid moves to the left, though that is not explained.
Father turns right, joins the Texas Three-percenters – “When tyranny becomes law rebellion becomes duty” — who think the government is not listening to them. He watches Tucker Carlsson on Fox News, which is apparently a mark of unacceptable far-right politics, though according to Forbes, “With 3.5 Million Viewers, Tucker Carlson Has The Week’s Highest-Rated Cable News Show.”
Father checks his gun and has a bullet-proof vest. The kid says he begins stockpiling ammo in his car, which has a 3% sticker. And he put the gun to his wife’s head. Did anything come of that. “No.” Mental health issue followed up? No.
Trump is saying “Biden is a fraud. We did win this election.” Father: “Time for a new party to rise up. Doesn’t matter who is president, they rotate. It’s the legislature. The Capitol is the head, it must be cut off.” (The left points out, with persuasive evidence, that the country is governed by the Uniparty, which alternates power between its corporate (and deep state) Republican and Democratic wings.)
Father: “My president says tomorrow 10 million people will stand up.” He tells the kid, “Do you see me? On TV? Keep watching. Watch me walk up the stairs. Pelosi’s coming out. McConnell too. They f-cked us too many years for too f-cking long. I am going into that building and I’m dragging them the f-ck out!”
The kid decides to inform the FBI. And to record the conversation. This play is said to be based on real dialogue. How is the dialogue up to then known to the writer?
Father leaves on a 1400-mile car trip to Washington and arrives two days later. The son sees him on video on the steps of the Capitol. Father says, “We did it. We took the United States Capitol, we are the people of the republic.”
The kid says it was treason.
“No, what we can do without firing a shot…I didn’t break any laws. This is just the beginning.”
Father has a loaded gun. What is missing. Are civilians dead? Only one, killed by a policeman. Father says bear spray blinded him. It made it impossible for him to march into the building.
Kid repeats: “What you guys did was treason. Everybody who was there on the 6th should be locked up for rest of their lives.”
He lies about recording their conversations. He meets with the FBI giving them all his audio and screen shots. He does media appearances, CNN, Good Morning America, ABC News, NYT, USA Today. He works with a U.S. government attorney. He starts a GoFundMe account that nets $158K.
Only at the end of the play do we hear the father’s lawyer (Larry Poindexter) say the accused didn’t know what he was doing, suggesting mental illness. “Rather than offering help to father, you sent anonymous tip to FBI…He never put his hand on anyone. Never threw anything at anyone. Never hit anyone with anything. He did not take or break anything…. He did not even go into the Capitol building. He did not make it inside.”
“My client brags a lot. What can I tell you? He exaggerates. He uses a lot of hyperbole that upsets people. People sometimes say outrageous things. That’s why you should doubt the son’s claim that his life was threatened. He recorded five conversations but did not record any threats. Not one. Yet, that didn’t stop him from hyping it on CNN, Good Morning America, and his GoFundMe page.”
“George Orwell wrote about a dystopian future where children are encouraged to report their parents to the State for their thought crimes. Do we now live in a nation where what we think, what we believe, what we say, is a crime? How did we get here? When did America go horribly wrong?”
The accused was found guilty of: Transporting a Firearm in Furtherance of a Civil Disobedience, Obstruction of an Official Proceeding, Entering or Remaining in a Restricted Building or Grounds with a Firearm. Obstructing Officers During a Civil Disorder. Obstruction of Justice, Hindering Communication Through Force or Threat of Physical Harm.
On August 1, 2022, Guy Wesley Reffitt was sentenced to seven years and three months in federal prison for participating in a protest at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Seven years for a non-violent protest. United States vs. Guy Wesley Reffitt featured testimony from Reffitt’s 19-year-old son, Jackson, who secretly recorded his father talking about that day and gave the evidence to the FBI.
It doesn’t appear to be the author’s intention, but this play details a son’s treachery and the Justice Department’s abusive “lawfare,” the weaponization of law against dissidents.
“Fatherland.” Conceived and directed by Stephen Sachs. Stage II, New York City Center, 131 West 55 Street, NYC. Tkts. Runtime 1hr45min. Opened Sept 18, 2024, closes Nov 23, 2024.