George Tovar (left) plays Jack Wilson and Nick McDow Musleh is Daniel Baker, in Mark Wilding’s comic spy thriller Our Man in Santiago at AMT Theater.
If you like political satire with a twist of espionage, look no further than Mark Wilding’s new play, Our Man in Santiago. Directed by Charlie Mount, this comic spy thriller, inspired by the failed U.S. attempt in the 1970s to depose Salvador Allende, Chile’s democratically elected left-wing leader, can reawaken one to the spectacular misfires of American adventurism.
The play’s title is a nod to Graham Greene’s 1958 cloak-and-dagger novel, Our Man in Havana, a classic that keys into the potential for absurdity in modern espionage fiction. Wilding, though, riffs off a 1974 article by Gabriel García Márquez about a plan by the Nixon administration and the Chilean military to overthrow Allende.
Presciliana Esparolini (left) plays Maria and George Tovar portrays Jack in Our Man in Santiago. Photographs by Charlie Mount.
Wilding’s zany work blends historical fact and fiction with a deep dive into Chilean history of the period, starting with a framing device: testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee, CIA operative Daniel Baker (Nick McDow Musleh) is asked, “How ’bout you take us back to that day?” Daniel then casts his mind back to a Santiago hotel room on Sept. 11, 1973, when he is ineptly fumbling to put bullets in his gun, and begins his story.
An idealist, Baker feels a bit uncertain about his new assignment, which simply identifies him as an “observer” in Chile. When his station chief, the brawny and sharp-tongued Jack Wilson (George Tovar), joins him at the hotel, Daniel, whose only other gig was in idyllic New Zealand, confesses some uneasiness.
“I don’t want you to think I’m not appreciative,” Daniel says. “This is all very exciting. The presidential residence is right across the street. I got to see an angry protest up close. It’s like I’ve been dropped into the middle of history.”
Instead of offering solace, the hard-boiled Jack steers the conversation toward his own political philosophy. He draws on Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” to validate the covert political involvement of the United States in Chile in 1973: “When it comes to the Chileans, you have to goose them a little, nudge them in the right direction,” he tells Daniel.
The only female character in this testosterone-loaded play is thirtysomething Maria (Presciliana Esparolini), an attractive maid who speaks in broken English and who’s more psychologically complex than she at first appears. But Daniel and Jack treat her in strikingly different ways. Daniel believes that Maria should be spoken to politely; Jack vehemently argues that she “responds even better to rudeness.”
Musleh (left) as Daniel Baker with Esparolini as Maria Troncoso.
As the three characters in Chile rub one another the wrong way, back in Washington there’s concern about the CIA mission. On Jeff G. Rick’s versatile set, the back wall suddenly slides open to reveal President Richard Nixon (Steve Neil) and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (Michael Van Duzer) for a conference call. Dressed by costume designer Mylette Nora in conservative suits, the pair promise Jack a promotion to Deputy Director of the CIA if the coup d’état goes off without a hitch.
The fun begins as Kissinger adroitly manages the phone button grid for Nixon, who’s all thumbs at the start of the conference call. One of Kissinger’s biographers praised the Secretary of State for “his fingertip feel for the world’s webs of interdependence,” and indeed, one sees that talent—writ small—in this scene. That said, Nixon still is top dog here, and he lets Kissinger know it at every turn, pointing out to him, for instance, that sitting on the corner of the Resolute desk is a no-no.
While the play’s comedic engine keeps humming throughout, serious questions are raised about American adventurism across the globe that give it a dark undercurrent. And it also begs the question: Have we, as Americans, learned from our past missteps in Vietnam? Cambodia? Chile?
Michael Van Duzer (left) plays Henry Kissinger and Steve Nevil is Richard Nixon in the political satire.
The acting, however, is top-notch. Musleh infuses Daniel with equal measures of nerve and naiveté. Tovar’s Jack has machismo in spades. As Maria, Esparalini turns in a finely nuanced performance. She is the only character in the play who knows what the life of an ordinary Chilean is like and that women who beat pots and pans (the sound design is by Mount) in the streets are protesting a lack of food.
And both Nevil and Van Duzer, as Nixon and Kissinger, respectively, possess excellent comic timing and know how to chew the scenery to smithereens.
Wilding, a successful film and television writer (Good Girls, Grey’s Anatomy) has pulled off an impressive and compelling political satire. With unswerving direction by Mount and fine acting by its cast, this production lands on its theatrical feet.
The production of Our Man in Santiago runs at the AMT Theater (354 W 45th St.) through Oct. 28. Evening performances are at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and 8 p.m. on Saturday; matinees are at 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday. For tickets and information, visit ourmaninsantiago.com.
