Scalia (Edward Gero) and Cat (Kerry Warren) face off. Photo: C. Stanley Photography
By DCist Contributor Missy Frederick
Love him or hate him, Antonin Scalia is one of those brilliant, fascinating figures who probably finds his way onto a lot of people’s “Five Famous People to Host at a Fantasy Dinner Party” lists, even for those who can’t stomach his politics. Arena Stage’s new play, The Originalist, takes advantage of that can’t-look-away fascination, using it to give audiences their own window into the controversial Supreme Court Justice’s inevitably complicated interior life.
The Originalist, written by Arena’s resident playwright John Strand, starts off more like a premise than a play. In the first scene, Scalia (Edward Gero) tells the audience who he is on his own terms, through the device of an address to college students. The second scene sets up his dramatic foil, Cat, a “flaming liberal” law student who is interviewing for a prestigious clerkship with the justice.
But The Originalist soon settles into its rhythm as a work about the pair’s complicated relationship. Scalia means for Cat to challenge him, to give him a window into the other side’s point of view, while Cat clearly wants to spar with the justice and to figure out what makes him tick: “I need to learn about monsters,” she tells him. He ultimately embraces her chutzpah.
The Originalist is a smart, thrilling trip through Supreme Court history, intertwining obscure (but significant) moments of law with familiar, pivotal cases. One scene, between Cat and her sycophantic, Rand Paul-loving conservative rival (Harlan Work), admittedly falls flat, hinging on the world’s least-convincing angry food fight. But overall, The Originalist brings a sense of drama to moments that wouldn’t typically be theatrical, including the process of crafting legal briefs and a card game of Constitutional trivia. The timing of the play’s run, as the Supreme Court hears arguments about gay marriage just down the street from Arena Stage, brings goosebumps during the play’s climactic scenes about the Defense of Marriage Act. Director Molly Smith punctuates scene changes, as well as an important moment between Scalia and Cat, with snippets of opera scores, many beloved by the Supreme Court justice.
Gero’s resemblance to Scalia himself is startling, and he plays the justice with an engaging, twinkling-eyed sense of humor that breaks through from the judge’s staunch certainty and arrogance. It’s a pleasure to watch him recount his life’s successes (his confirmation hearing face-off with Ted Kennedy) and disappointments (being passed over for the Chief Justice seat) with wistfulness, triumph, and regret. His chemistry with Kerry Warren’s Cat comes through the most when he’s being a friend and a sounding board to her, rather than when the two are sparring politically (in those scenes, Warren can feel less like Cat and more like a generic foil to Scalia’s arguments). Harlan Work makes the most of his rather one-note character, an ambitious pseudo-villain who might be a caricature if he wasn’t such a common archetype in the world of Washington lawyers.
At times, the deck feels stacked during The Originalist; the unseasoned Cat can’t always hold court when facing off against Scalia’s narrow but hard-held views, though she does manage to get under his skin and reveal more of his human side. The Originalist is nothing if not a human portrayal of a larger-than-life figure, almost to a fault. Is Antonin Scalia really the funny, vulnerable figure that Strand and Gero make him out to be? If so, history’s monster of absolutism may have more in common with the “politician you’d like to have a beer with” than anyone imagined.
The Originalist runs through May 31 at Arena Stage. Tickets ($55-119) are available online.
