George Washington strides onstage with a cool, “Hey, America.”
Well, good old George never rocked sunglasses like that. And he quite emphatically did not look like Gregg Baker Jr., the actor who’s playing him (really in name only) in “The Foreplay: An Exploration of the Birth of Our Nation.” The comedy, a former Fringe Festival hit, is onstage at The Abbey in Orlando as the latest offering from New Generation Theatrical.
Michael Knight wrote the comedy, that uses the framing of the Bill of Rights as an excuse to pick at our brains about how the U.S. works today, while reminding us why. It’s smart and funny, and there’s a drinking game to boot.
There’s also a history pop quiz that had my mouth go dry like a middle schooler who didn’t do the reading and silently prays the teacher won’t call on him. Oh, maybe that’s what the drinks are for.
It’s 1789 and James Madison, George Mason and Thomas Jefferson have met to draft the Bill of Rights. It’s a mishmash of personalities: Madison is a bit soft-spoken — until a violation of his pillows is brought up; Mason a bit crotchety; and Jefferson… well, Jefferson… he’s something of a coked-up, filter-free frat boy.
Washington exists outside the trio’s work, addressing the audience directly. And pitch-perfect Baker scores laugh after laugh with occasional asides, pointed commentary and sometimes just a disapproving noise.
“You have forgotten what we did,” he admonishes the audience when no one can answer a question about the amendments. Later, he earns gales of laughter with a faux tough-guy act: “I made this country, and I can damn well take you out of it.”
‘The Foreplay’ is back to lampoon our country then (and our country now)
Knight’s script is a perfectly giddy blend of modern touches, anachronistic language, witty putdowns and foul-mouthed curses. It’s all deftly intertwined with the actual amendments and their purposes. Learning can be fun!
As director, Knight could have sharpened the characterizations of Adams and Mason, making the former a bit more prissy, perhaps, and the later a touch more cantankerous. But one gets the feeling this gang was having too much fun for fine-tuning.
Adam DelMedico is a ball of obnoxious energy, who then pulls great ideas out of his filthy mouth, as Jefferson. At times, it feels like Zachrey York (Madison) and Isaac Bannasch (Mason) just have to keep up with him — and they do with panache.
It’s all a bit too loud and occasionally so frantic that the actors are just all shouting over each other, but it’s consistently big-laugh funny. And then, in the real magical moments, Knight hits you with something to think about.
A pantomime of loading a musket is as powerful a reflection as you will find on what the Second Amendment meant to the founding fathers and what it means today. And true patriots might get misty-eyed over lines like this one, about freedom of speech: “The point isn’t to make everyone happy, the point is to make everyone free.”
This silliness has a serious side. And it’s all the more powerful — and, dare I say, patriotic — for it.
Follow me at facebook.com/matthew.j.palm or email me at mpalm@orlandosentinel.com. Find more arts news at OrlandoSentinel.com/entertainment.
‘The Foreplay: An Exploration of the Birth of Our Nation’
- When: Through June 30
- Where: The Abbey, 100 S. Eola Drive in Orlando
- Cost: $20-$35 (includes two drinks and a 20% discount code for New Generation’s next production, “Gothic Seas.”)
- Info: newgentheatrical.org/foreplay
