By Michael Buzzelli
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” – George Orwell, “1984.”
Morgan Vaughn (Bugz Baltzer) gets promoted to Chief of Staff in the Trump White House, near the final days of his term, as a VP is about to be sworn in to become the next president. Meanwhile Trump (Liam Hartman) isn’t ready to hand over the job to someone else in Eoin Carney’s “The Last Days of Trump.”
General Reese (Gavin McKinnon) suggests that Morgan find a way to distract the president from causing chaos during the power transition. The duo recruits a librarian, Carla Heart (Angela Vincent), to help construct the Trump Library.
The president doesn’t want a library. Trump says, “Libraries are lame,” but when Morgan tells him Obama has one, Trump insists on having the biggest and best presidential library.
Right before the VP is sworn in, he is assassinated, leaving Trump an open door to claim the power once more.
From that, a Rubik’s Cube of power struggles among all four players, each with an idea of what is best for the country, in their own madcap way.
“The Last Days of Trump” is a delightful romp, prognosticating the future in the funniest way imaginable.
Baltzer is the harried assistant, desperately trying to keep everything together. They do a magnificent job in the role.
Gavin McKinnon is commanding as General Reese. His baritone voice and posture make him the perfect choice to play the leader of an army.
Vincent plays the soft-spoken librarian without any malice, but the skittish bunny rabbit becomes a bear, and Vincent can make the transition marvelously.
Hartman’s Trump is too authentic. He manifests PTSD for the audience as he plays a full-on impression of the disdainful president. It’s a bit of “Dawson’s Casting” wherein someone plays a character that is vastly different from their own age (named after the 30 year-olds playing high school juniors on “Dawson’s Creek.” See the Urban Dictionary). Hartman is in his 20s but plays the president 50-to-60 years his senior. It’s the Fringe! And it works.
Carney creates a fragile yet eerily possible world. It’s hard to parody a president who says outlandish things every day. The current state of the media is making it hard for satirical websites like The Onion to poke fun at reality because the world has been so bizarre under Trump’s presidency. Carney can walk a fine line between parody and theatrical drama. There’s a moment when you actually feel sorry for the asshole-in-chief.
There are parts of the show that are hard to watch at some points. While Carney skewers the right with gusto, he does take some jabs at the left as well. No one is safe in Carney’s crazy vision of the future.
The Fringe gets fringy. The play definitely has an Off-Off-Broadway appeal, probably because Carney writes, directs, designs the sets, stage-manages, and does whatever else the production needs to make the show happen.
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“The Last Days of Trump” plays
