Unmissable connections
‘Kennedy: Bobby’s Last Crusade,’ a film of a play, shown in a ballpark
The Kennedy brothers Jack, Bobby and Ted liked to play touch football in Hyannisport. That has nothing to do with why the play “Kennedy: Bobby’s Last Crusade” was being seen in a minor league baseball field Tuesday night. Unable to produce shows in their own space, Playhouse on Park is streaming a filmed version of the play they chose to open their 2020-21 season. On Tuesday they played “Kennedy: Bobby’s Last Crusade” on the giant screen in Dunkin’ Donuts Park.
This rousing one-man show recreates moments of Bobby Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign, with unmissable connections to politics today. There are ominous references to “a president who could never admit to making a mistake” (Bobby’s talking about LBJ), women’s rights struggles and civil rights leaders such as John Lewis. The show is calculated to be relevant and provocative, not nostalgic.
David Arrow, who stars in
“Bobby’s Last Crusade” and also scripted it, doesn’t sound exactly like Robert F. Kennedy — his pitch is low, his tone less nasal — but he has mastered (presumably by rote memorization) the Sena
tor’s maddening inconsistencies in pronouncing words with the vowel “a” in them.
Bobby’s apparent prescience about social ills we still rally about today, and his constant calls to action, are tempered by anecdotes from his private life, like how he met his wife Ethel. There are numerous references to his dog Freckles.
Kennedy despairs of seeing minority faces at his rallies. (He wouldn’t see hardly any in this audience either.) He sings Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land,” suggests that it should be the national anthem, then sings “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?”
The tragic reason why RFK’s campaign ended is well known, and this show doesn’t sensationalize it at all. It never gets noisy or abrupt. Its special effects are all verbal, rhetorical.
A giant screen in a ballpark is not a bad way to see a play. Yes, you’re looking through the foul-ball netting, but the crisp sound system envelops you from all sides, and the picture quality is first-rate. Yes, the spotlights and dug-out lights and giant-sized glowing Dunkin’ coffee cup above the screen can be distracting, but “Kennedy: Bobby’s Last Crusade” keeps you focused. It’s basically about a passionate
man giving speeches, then explaining what happened after he gave them. You watch the way you would a political rally. The set is simply a podium, surrounded by campaign signs: “Kiss Me, Bobby,” “Yea RFK,” We have a right to live right.”
The camera captures the performance unobtrusively, though seeing a lot of projected backdrops in a play that itself is being projected on a screen gets rather “meta.” There are a few clunky shots which close in on Arrow’s face just as he’s making an important point, and they have all the finesse of those final 30 seconds of a presidential debate where the camera rolls forward on cue.
The show’s playwright/ star came to Hartford for the special showing and stood on the dugout roof for a post-show Q&A. “If anyone wants to stand and warm up, I’ll pretend it’s a standing ovation,” he joked, then more sincerely expressed how nice it was to hear laughter and other live reactions to his performance, something actors haven’t experienced in recent months. He called “Bobby’s Last Crusade” a “play about now.” The topicality of those 22-yearold speeches is “why I wrote the play,” Arrow said, ending the discussion with “Please vote!”
The audience on Tuesday night numbered under 100 people: that’s only two-thirds of the capacity of one show at Playhouse on Park in normal times. Those 100 people were spaced out over sections 104-107 of the park, the ones which overlook first and second base and directly face the giant screen. Attendees had to wear masks unless they were in their seats. Some kept masks on through the entire show.
“Kennedy: Bobby’s Last Crusade” was preceded by a lengthy trailer extolling the virtues of Playhouse on Park, driving home the point that it is a professional theater that engages deeply with the West Hartford community. Most of the viewings the show will get be in isolation, through devices in people’s homes. This one, distanced as it was, was for that fervent Playhouse on Park community that wanted to see each other watching a show together for a change.
The Dunkin’ Donuts
Park screening was a one-time thing, but “Kennedy: Bobby’s Last Crusade” has one more outdoor screening, Oct. 1 the Ingersoll Pop-Up
Drive-In at Edmond Town Hall in Newtown. Mainly, the show is available to livestream on computers and other devices through Oct. 4. Playhouse on Park is next using Dunkin’ Donuts Park for a Comedy Night Sept. 24 at 7 p.m.
“Kennedy: Bobby’s Last Crusade, a filmed version of the stage show written and performed by David Arrow, directed by Eric Nightengale, livestreams through Oct. 4 courtesy of Playhouse on Park, playhouseonpark. org. For $20, you receive a unique code enabling you to watch the show within a 48-hour period. There is also a public screening Oct. 1 at 7:30 p.m. at the Ingersoll PoP-Up Drive-In, Edmond Town Hall, 45 Main Street, Newtown; tickets for that event are $20 per car.