‘Camping with Henry and Tom’ superb
Tom Titus
There is no historical confirmation that the leader of the free
world, one of America’s captains of industry and its most renowned
inventor ever became stranded in the woods together, beyond contact
with the outside world.
It’s a matter of record, however, that President Warren G. Harding
did indeed participate in a camping trip with Henry Ford and Thomas
Edison, which prompted playwright Mark St. Germain to create “Camping
With Henry and Tom,” the latest production at the Newport Theater
Arts Center.
Given the character and personalities of the three men, St.
Germain has created a “fiction suggested by fact,” thrusting these
three historical figures together and turning them loose, so to
speak, on one another. The resulting Newport production, directed by
Phyllis Gitlin, is among the most impressive of the year in community
theater.
Such a fabrication -- involving men who left their mark, one way
or another, on American history -- demands an outstanding cast, and
Gitlin has accomplished this objective with the three actors who
share the stage and air their passions, or lack of them, in the
privacy of the forest. The three combine to render a superbly enacted
account of what might actually have transpired back in the summer of
1921.
To briefly set the stage of history, Harding was a man who never
wanted to be president and entered the history books as one of the
most ineffectual holders of that office. Ford, on the other hand,
yearned desperately to occupy the White House, a dream that was
denied him, while Edison existed in an intellectual plane far above
both and couldn’t care less who was in charge.
It is the Henry Ford character who commands most of the stage
time, and Jack Messenger delivers a powerfully arresting performance
in this role. Messenger’s Ford is a blunt, opinionated and, as it
develops, viciously bigoted man whose politics would play more
effectively in Nazi Germany. Messenger pilots his Ford into emotional
overdrive, running roughshod over the president, but deferring to the
famed inventor to the point where he can address him only as “Mr.
Edison.”
Tom Turnley, in the much lower-key character of President Harding,
readily acknowledges his failings -- including his fathering of a
child with his mistress, Nan Britton, during a Clintonesque
rendezvous in the White House. As much as Ford covets his office,
Harding would love to give it to him, or anyone else, and Turnley
beautifully renders this scandal-plagued figure with all his faults
intact.
The role of Edison, whose famed deafness seems quite selective, is
enriched with satirical irony by Jack Rule, who not only resembles
the late actor John Houseman physically, but vocally as well.
Edison’s stature at the time placed him several rungs above Ford on
the ladder of prestige, and Rule captures this kingly quality in an
excellent performance.
The play’s fourth character, a Secret Service agent who discovers
the stranded campers late in the play, is played with proper rigidity
by Andrew Vonderschmitt. His impact is slight, but telling, such as
the moment when, in deference to Harding, he refuses to be cowed by
the ballistic Ford.
The Maryland forest setting, which prevails as the captor of the
three men, is most realistically designed by Marty Eckmann, one of
the finest scenic backdrops offered in local community theater all
season. Donna Fritsche contributes fine period costumes, while Mitch
Atkins’ lighting and Ron Wyand’s sound effects serve the production
equally well.
“Camping With Henry and Tom” probably isn’t historically accurate,
but like other plays with celebrated figures of the past, it offers a
provocative glimpse at what might have transpired had these three men
been thrust together in such a situation. In any event, it’s a
terrific evening of theater.
* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His reviews
appear Saturdays.
All the latest on Orange County from Orange County.
Get our free TimesOC newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Daily Pilot.