The City of Conversation

Politics are most definitely personal in The City of Conversation, the new play by Anthony Giardina in performances at Lincoln Center. Directed by Doug Hughes and starring an elegant and impassioned Jan Maxwell, this new work ambitiously and somewhat clumsily explores the inevitably combustible combination of government and family in Georgetown.

Maxwell gives yet another remarkable performance celebrated Georgetown hostess Hester Ferris who hosts the civilized and most definitely bipartisan dinner parties where alliances can be formed and agreements can be made without the hubbub of the Senate floor interfering.

The play opens in 1979 and spans thirty years, first with the Carter presidency, followed by the Regan years and concluding with President Obama’s inauguration. Hester is planning a party to address “a little Judiciary Committee thing,” as she calls it, when her son Colin (Michael Simpson) rocks the boat by returning home a day early from studying in England, and with a conservative fiancé Anna Fitzgerald (Kristen Bush) in tow.

The two women quickly clash; “I’ll bet you’re an ambitious girl,” Hester says to Anna, to which Anna retorts, “I’ll bet you’re right.” At first Anna presents herself as political ingenue, requesting Hester’s permission to watch her dress for the party. But Hester quickly suspects ulterior motives and, with a reference to “All About Eve,” informs Colin that she does not approve of his intended.

“One of the nice things, I always believed, about Georgetown, was the way we all used to lay down our arms at the end of the day and become convivial,” Hester said of her dinners. “As if to say, though the battles are very real, we are all finally people, and we have to rest and break bread together in order to get up the next day and do battle again.”

Hester’s evening, entertaining Republican senator from Kentucky and his wife (John Aylward and Barbara Garrick), and her smooth and subtle plans are thrown astray when Anna’s ambitions are revealed as she invades the all-male tradition of brandy and cigars after the meal. Tensions — both political and familial — escalate when the young woman says, “Mrs. Ferris, I say this with respect. I know you see me — us — Governor Reagan — as barbarians at the gates. But you have lost touch. Do you have any idea how deep it is right now, people’s desire to love their country again?”

Hester’s home, in its comfortable opulence, is beautifully rendered by John Lee Beatty; the costumes by Catherine Zuber suit the time and place beautifully and the lighting by Tyler Micoleau and music and sound by Mark Bennett enhance the rising tension of the play, contradicting with the tasteful settings.

The second act takes place several years later, when Colin and Anna have married and had a son (Luke Niehaus), whom Hester delights in caring for and infusing with her own political philosophy. Hester and her sister, Jean (an excellent and underused Beth Dixon), are campaigning against the nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court — an appointment that both Anna and Colin’s careers depend on. When Anna learns of Hester’s work, she responds by threatening to keep Ethan from Hester unless Hester stops her fight.

The face-off between the two women, both of whom are formidable presences when impassioned, is a tense one. While I found Bush to be a bit too one-dimensional in the first act, her spirit and anger are revealed in the second. Both actresses give admirable performances; the grief that Hester feels is poignant and moving, as is everything Maxwell, one of the best stage actresses in New York, does. In the third act, which takes place in 2008, her performance as an aged, tired woman is remarkable.

Some of the dialogue does not land and some statements feel clichés, but The City of Conversation makes several powerful statements and raises powerful questions — both about love for one’s family and love for one’s country. And a story about an activist — that is, a female activist, passionately and unapologetically devoted to her cause and fighting for what she believes in — is one I appreciate greatly. And the skilled and capable hands of Maxwell only makes it even better.