JEFF RHODE
Chantal Jean-Pierre and Harry Patrick Christian in “The Mighty Four.”
Catherine Butterfield’s politically oriented drama “The Mighty Four” — currently being presented by Vivid Stage at The Oakes Center in Summit, in its world premiere — could hardly be more of-the-moment. Here we are, less than nine months into the second Donald Trump presidency, and Butterfield has got it all in there: MAGA’s tendency to turn thugs into heroes, the rise of protest efforts, the threat of ICE deportation and media censorship, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s war on science, the way opportunistic politicians are making everything worse. The dread that some kind of civil war could be coming.
But a play is not a political lecture. Butterfield’s biggest accomplishment lies in the way she captures the heartbreak of well-intentioned people having to face the fact that family members and/or dear friends may be part of the problem, and not the solution.
This is not a perfect play. It is a bit repetitious and, with its two acts lasting about 110 minutes (not counting the intermission), a little too long. But it is still quite an accomplishment.
The Los Angeles-set play (directed here by Vivid Stage’s artistic director Laura Ekstrand) takes its title from a silly nickname its main characters — two upper middle class, liberal, middle-aged couples who bonded when their children, now grown, were young — gave themselves years ago, in their more carefree days. But things have taken a precipitous turn, in one of the couple’s lives, and in the couple’s friendship.
JEFF RHODE
Scott McGowan and Harriett Trangucci in “The Mighty Four.”
The Mighty Four are TV showrunner Jack (Scott McGowan) and his wife Joan (Harriett Trangucci), a realtor; and writer Didi (Chantal Jean-Pierre) and her husband Ken (Harry Patrick Christian), a psychologist. All are white except Didi, who is African American; I mention this only because it is crucial to the plot.
Joan and Jack’s 20something son Zack (Max Evans) has become a controversial, Kyle Rittenhouse-like national figure after becoming violent and showing his racism in a road rage incident that was captured on video. Meanwhile, Didi and Ken’s son Tyler (Joshua T. Crockett), formerly a friend of Zack’s, is an activist who is organizing an upcoming Black Lives Matter protest event in Los Angeles. (Evans and Crockett also play several small roles in the play.)
Didi and Ken, who moved to Atlanta when Zack and Tyler were in high school, have come back to L.A. to attend Tyler’s rally, and to offer emotional support to Jack and Joan, who they know must be in deep anguish over the incident.
“Have we gotten all the awkward pauses out of the way?” Joan asks soon after Didi and Ken arrive at Joan and Jack’s stylish suburban home (set design by Zach Pizza).
Pretty quickly, it becomes clear that Ken and Didi are appalled by how Joan and Jack are handling everything. They are making excuses: Zack was upset because he just failed his bar exam and therefore in a fragile emotional state before the incident, they say. They are also downplaying the incident, and refusing to publicly criticize what Zack has done.
JEFF RHODE
Joshua T. Crockett plays an activist leading a Black Lives Matter rally and several smaller roles in “The Mighty Four.”
“We don’t know where any of that came from,” says Jack. “I mean, sure, he has expressed some pretty right-wing opinions in the past, but we had no idea he was harboring that level of hatred.”
Jack is something of a celebrity, due to his work in TV, and known to support liberal causes. He argues, not totally unreasonably, that because of the current media climate, anything he might say, publicly, would be distorted, and make things worse.
Ken and Didi want Joan and Jack to come to Tyler’s rally, but they get a firm no. They still love their old friends, and try to be sympathetic. But eventually, their anger flares up.
“We can’t hang our kid out to dry; we have to present a united front,” says Jack.
“United! Against what?” Ken snaps back. “Against Tyler’s ability to defend himself without fear of being shot in the streets?”
A clever twist: It comes out that Didi and Ken’s daughter Kimmy (not seen in the play) is an avid anti-vaxxer. Does this make everything equal, in a sense? And while Didi and Ken have no problem criticizing Zack, they, like Joan and Jack, are not as severe when it comes to their own child’s disturbing behavior. It is merely a “blind spot,” Didi says.
JEFF RHODE
Max Evans as a conservative speaker in “The Mighty Four.”
Much of the play is made up of flashbacks to key incidents in all of their lives, including the first time Didi and Joan met, while volunteering at a school event; the political work the four once did together; a fathers-and-sons hiking trip; an encounter at a bar with a guy named Eggbert (played by Evans), who seems racist at first but quickly apologizes and turns out to be friendly; and the time that Jack embarrassed Zack by intruding on a talk given by a prominent conservative (played by Evans) at Zack’s high school.
Most of the flashbacks seem relevant to the dynamics of the marriages, and the friendship between the couples. I didn’t see the point, though, of exploring Joan’s tragic miscarriage. Or of saddling Jack with a bad back, and Ken with resentment that Jack never thanked him for helping him with one of his TV shows. These seemingly extraneous elements do help make the point, though, that even before the Zack incident, everyone’s life was already complicated and, in some ways, difficult, despite the comfort of their lifestyles.
But now, for The Mighty Four, there are bigger things to worry about. Everything seems to have gone horribly off-track for them, and for the country. Is healing even possible? And how could that be done?
Of course, Butterfield does not give any definitive answers. She is more interested in exploring the anxiety of the moment.
Or, as Jack puts it, “We’re all walking around on eggshells.”
“We’re The Mighty Four,” says Ken, hopefully, at another point. “If we can’t work through this, who can?”
Vivid Stage will present “The Mighty Four” at The Oakes Center in Summit through Oct. 12. Visit vividstage.org.
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