Three score and 10 years ago Robert E. Sherwood penned an epic play about Abraham Lincoln. "Abe Lincoln in Illinois" is the latest offering in Intiman Theatre's American Cycle series.
If you go to the Intiman to be educated rather than thrilled, you may not be disappointed. The show is earnest, rather than exciting. Sherwood's script spans the timeframe between 1833 an 1861. As the play begins, Lincoln is young man living in New Salaam; when it ends, he's still in Illinois but he's has just been elected president.
We all know the ending, but the production enacts chronological scenes leading up to his magnificent destiny with history at an old fashioned pace.
Sherwood's 70-year-old Pulitzer Prize-winning play shakes off the dust and plods along for three hours with two intermissions, dispensing a dozen bio-sketches from Lincoln's early manhood. He hasn't even grown a beard.
Mostly self-taught, Lincoln is a voracious reader--Shakespeare, the Bible, philosophers. He is also a gloomy guy, reputed to suffer from depression (now we call it bi-polar), low self-esteem, fear of not only death but ambition, crowds and women. He was also a hopeless hypochondriac.
He isn't much for hunting-he doesn't like to kill-- but he's a great wrestler and he's handy with an axe and a rail. He's not much of a businessman either. He went broke running a grocery store, mostly because his partner drank up the merchandise. Still Honest Abe did the right thing. He takes on his partner's debt, which amounted to a fortune back in those days.
Abe sees himself as a failure. But his mentor advises, "Just bear in mind that there are always two professions open to people who fail at everything else: there's school-teaching, and there's politics." Abe muses that he might win, so he'd rather teach school.
There are few fissions in this production. We move with Lincoln through his tragic first love, his tumultuous marriage to Mary Todd, his law practice and his debates with Stephen Douglas.
Out-of-town actor Eric Lochtefeld takes on the daunting challenge of playing Honest Abe. He gives a personable-enough performance, but not a perfectly convincing one. Ultimately, he fails to radiate the kind of greatness we hungry to glimpse, even in a folksy young Abe. We want to know how this country hick evolved into one of the greatest presidents in American history.
Nor is Lochtefeld a dead ringer for Lincoln. (For this critic, it was even harder to pretend, because the man sitting in front of me happened to be the spitting image.) Lochtefeld is shorter, heavier and lacks the craggy looks and lanky physique of our 16th president. He looks the most like Lincoln when he turns his back in an onstage tableau, or occasionally when the lighting dims for a shadowy image.
Unfortunately in Act one, Lochtefeld played it a little much like Gomer Pyle, and it doesn't help that he resembles Jim Nabors. But Lochtefeld does grow on you as the play progresses. By Act Three, he hits his stride, especially during the debate with political rival, R. Hamilton Wright as Stephen Douglas. Incidentally, Wright does a splendid turn.
Director Sheila Daniels does a nice job of staging the production. Inserting musical numbers is an innovative way to transition from scene to scene. And Mikiko Suzuki MacAdams' creates a rustic set, framing the stage with rough-hewn barn boards and a wide-open prairie of waving wheat.
Nineteen actors, compared to the 49 Sherwood's script demands, playing supporting roles, as they build a portrait of the early years of our 16th president. Hans Altwies gives an outstanding performance as Joshua Speed, Lincoln's life long friend and loyal, as does Peter Dylan O'Connor as Lincoln's law clerk, Billy Herndon, a passionate abolitionist with a fondness for alcohol.
Other notable turns include Angela DiMarco as Lincoln's first love Ann Rutledge, Susan Corzatte as the wise Nancy Bowling Green and Matt Shikus as Jack Armstrong, a rough and tumble New Salaam homeboy.
Seattle favorite Clayton Corzotte nearly steals the scene in Act One as Ben, a wily old sot in a New Salem tavern who bellows: "You're an honest man, Abe Lincoln. You're a good-for-nothin', debt-ridden loafer, but you're an honest man."
Abe was also a witty man. After being elected, reporters insisted that the people wanted to know his first official act. It was not buying a dog for the kids and it was certainly not planting a garden.
"Tell 'em I'm thinking of growing a beard."
"Abe Lincoln in Illinois" runs Tuesday to Sunday through November 15th at Intiman Theatre, tickets $10-$55, 206-269-1900.
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