[NoHo Arts District, CA] – NoHo Theatre Review of Moving Arts Theatre’s What Price Freedom by Tony Blake, directed by Darin Anthony and running April 11-May 3.
What Price Freedom at Moving Arts Theatre is a sharp, timely play that brings John Adams and Benjamin Franklin into a single room and lets them collide.
How powerful and meaningful that a play set 250 years ago, when America was barely born, let alone fully formed, could be so timely and important to us now.
In the days after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, John Adams and his sometime rival Benjamin Franklin traveled to Boston together to meet with Britain’s representative to try and negotiate a peace deal. War had been raging, and both men, whose opinions on a path to peace differed wildly, were determined to end it. The meeting was highly secret, so the two of them were travelling together by coach and trying to keep as low a profile as possible. On the night this play is set, they had arrived at a tavern for the night only to discover that there was only one room available…with only one bed.
Although it was far more common in those days for people to sleep in the same bed for one reason or another, these two particular men on this particularly important trip could have happily done without the additional stress, that’s for sure.
While they were trapped together, hiding from the proletariat and the rowdy pro-British hooligans in the bar below their room, they talked. Both men were exceedingly good at talking, and although their obstinate natures and wildly opposing views on just about everything were very apparent, they did manage to find common ground and mutual respect. They were both, after all, trying to save the nation they struggled so hard to help create.
What Price Freedom is an absolutely wonderful interpretation of what became an iconic trip by two infamous and hugely influential men.
Both founding fathers, one a president, the other reminds us to this day of his fiscal conservatism every time we see his face beaming up at us from the $100 bill. For as long as we still have paper currency, that is!
Whatever you may think of them, no matter what your political leaning or ideology, what they did mattered. Their sacrifices resonate to this day in this still young nation.
What a story this is and what utterly phenomenal performances from these two fine actors, Rob Nagle and Brandon Bales.
Benjamin Franklin was famously witty and invented just about everything, apparently. John Adams had a legendary prickly nature and took no fools gladly. Just imagining them in a room together is entertaining enough, let alone the same bed, and this brilliantly formed story unfolds with as much humor and character-filled melodrama as you could hope for.
Don’t we all need to be reminded of what this country was built upon, in all its quirks and foibles and growing pains? It’s about as important right now as it ever has been. But what struck me the most about this truly brilliant play was that these men were just men. Only human beings, not gods, not monsters. Both just bumbling along, trying to do the right thing and sometimes failing, but always trying. They had ambition, they had hope, and they had the sheer belligerent nerve which is, of course, always the most necessary thing when trying to change anything.… Yourself, your life, the country or indeed the world.
Thank you to the good people of Moving Arts, the wonderful director Darin Anthony, and playwright Tony Blake for this opportunity to spend a little time with Benjamin and John and their absolute genius. I highly recommend Rob Nagle and Brandon Bales in What Price Freedom. Bravo to all!!!
Tickets:
https://movingarts.org/project/what-price-freedom/
Where:
3191 Casitas Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90039
When:
April 11-May 3
Friday, Saturday, Monday at 8 PM and Sunday at 4 PM
The Cast
Brandon Bales and Rob Nagle
The Team
Playwright: Tony Blake
Director: Darin Anthony
Producer: Laura Buckles
Producer: Dana Schwartz
Scenic and Lighting Design: Justin Huen
Sound Design: Warren Davis
Costume Design: Mylete Nora
Props: Dana Schwartz