Miss election debates? Have I got a rec for you!

With great timing, I read this review of The Rivalry at Ford's Theater this evening, having seen the play last night. Because apparently Chris Klimek and I are the same person ("Especially if you read Assassination Vacation twice and then listened to the audio version." Check and check, though I've read it more than twice.), I agree with his review pretty much all the way through, particularly about the ending. Because I was ushering, I got up at what I figured was the end (when the debates themselves ended)...and then found myself standing for another, oh, 10 minutes or so. Not cool. And not particularly necessary.

One thing that I particularly enjoyed about this was how real it made Abraham Lincoln. I've read accounts about how awkward he seemed to people early in his career, and it seems kind of crazy to us, because dude, Gettysburg Address, hello? But in the first minutes of the first debate...you could see it. And then, just like the accounts I've read, his passion for the subject came through and he (or, in this case, Robert Parsons) was just fascinating to watch.

Also, I found him incredibly endearing. It was the way he'd tell a funny story (and seriously, for a play about the Lincoln-Douglas debates, it sure did have its funny moments), and then laugh and laugh. Aww! So cute.

I do remain vaguely uncomfortable with the way directors of plays about Lincoln that are staged at Ford's have a tendency to light up The Box when Lincoln is being quoted. It's...weird. I mean, dude did see some plays there other than Our American Cousin (including The Marble Heart, which starred John Wilkes Booth, who apparently kept send nasty looks to the President) (that's, like, one of my favorite stories related to the Lincoln assassination), but it's not like he made speeches from there. He went there to get away from weighty matters. I think most people who see shows at Ford's, particularly ones about Lincoln, are all too aware of The Box's presence; I know I get weirded out, seeing this guy portraying Lincoln standing below the place where Lincoln was shot. To go that extra step...it's just unnecessary to me.

Anyway, the combination of this and The Heavens Are Hung in Black and seeing Conan O'Brien talk about Lincoln's humor (um...last spring, I think) are pushing me closer and closer to actually reading a biography of Lincoln. It probably is wrong that I know more about Lincoln's death and assassin than I do about him.

(In a side note, I realized that I'll be volunteering at Ford's the day after Lincoln's birthday. Neat!)

Edit. Another great review can be found here.