John Rubinstein plays former President Dwight D. Eisenhower in Richard Hellesen’s new solo play, Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground, at Theatre at St. Clement’s.
Richard Hellesen’s new solo show Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground resurrects the 34th President with much sound and fury. Directed by Peter Ellenstein, and with the superb John Rubinstein playing the eponymous role, this play may well overhaul that musty image of Dwight D. Eisenhower as a “do-nothing” president.
Rubinstein as Eisenhower discusses his memoir-in-progress in a phone conversation with his editor.
The play is framed with a terrific conceit: It’s 1962, and the New York Times magazine has published its first list ranking the American Presidents in order of greatness. Eisenhower, just two years out of office, is ranked 22nd out of 31 by 75 historians.
When the audience first glimpses the former President, he is striding into his study at his post-presidency home at his farm in Gettysburg, Pa. He has just read the feature, and his ego is smarting from his paltry ranking. Still, he’s not settling for the historians’ verdict. In fact, during the next two hours, the audience will eavesdrop on Eisenhower as he sets the record straight. He strategically starts with some ground rules:
Now listen: I’ve always had two rules: never discuss personalities; and never answer criticism directly. But I’m about to make an exception in both cases. Because I know a little something about history myself, and if you think I’m going to sit still for No. 22. … And not just because you’ve got Harry Truman smiling down at me from No. 9. I can hear him laughing all the way from Missour-uh.
While Eisenhower is a fictive work, it draws copiously on the 34th President’s speeches, letters, and memoirs. And though it uses the presidential poll as a humorous touchstone during the monologue, Eisenhower’s more serious preoccupation is writing his Oval Office memoirs for posterity. To this end, there is a reel-to-reel tape recorder on a table at center stage to which Eisenhower will intermittently confide his thoughts.
“Eisenhower’s extended monologue ... is very down-to-earth and includes the central episodes of his life through all its seasons.”
Fortunately, Hellesen’s script isn’t overly sentimental and doesn’t smack of being a commencement-day speech that hopes to stir up the younger generation with past patriotic deeds in order that they may rise to the demands of the present. Eisenhower’s extended monologue, in fact, is very down-to-earth and includes the central episodes of his life through all its seasons: his modest childhood in Abilene, Kans. (Eisenhower actually was born in Texas), where his family had to “pinch the Indian on the penny” so hard that it hurt; the scholarship that enabled him to become a cadet and get an education at the United States Military Academy at West Point; his courtship and marriage to Mamie; his glowing military career, in which he became the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe during World War II; his unexpected but successful run for the American presidency against the Democratic nominee Adlai Stevenson in 1952; and his (imperfect) ending to the Korean War. And that’s only a shortlist of his public achievements and important life events.
Hellesen isn’t bent on including any gossip on the former Commander-in-Chief. For instance, there’s no mention of Kay Summersby, who was assigned to drive then Maj. Gen. Dwight Eisenhower when he arrived in London in 1942. She was a member of the British Mechanised Transport Corps during World War II, and their relationship grew close during the period when Eisenhower was the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force. But in Hellesen’s straightforward piece, there’s no reference to their relationship at all.
Rubinstein, as Eisenhower, paints for relaxation in his enclosed sun porch at his Gettysburg, Pa., home. Photographs by Maria Baranova.
Of course, the real reason to go to this new Off-Broadway show is to see John Rubinstein (Pippin, Children of a Lesser God) inhabit Eisenhower with seemingly effortless ease. Although he’s not an Eisenhower lookalike, he captures the homespun folksy quality that made the 34th President seem like such a “regular Joe.” Rubinstein also scratches beneath the former President’s calm surface, revealing his sterner stuff. After all, one of Eisenhower’s major projects during his White House years was the building of the Interstate Highway System, influenced by his rugged (and often dangerous) experiences as a young Army officer crossing the country in the 1919 Motor Transport Corps.
The intermittent rolls of thunder (sound design by Huppert) that can be heard, time and again, enhance the unsettled mood that permeates the drama. The thunderclaps also seem to echo Eisenhower’s tempestuous outbursts, mostly directed at the historians mentioned at the play’s opening who referred to him as a “great American”—but not a “great President.”
As directed by Ellenstein, Eisenhower is a welcome addition to Off-Broadway and is chock-full of surprises. Take the screen projections (Huppert again) at play’s end that reveal that Eisenhower’s reputation has risen with the passage of time: an American presidential poll in 2022 ranked him No. 5 in order of greatness—ahead of Truman. Too bad the former President didn’t live long enough to see it.
Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground plays through Aug. 20 at Theatre at St. Clements (423 West 46th St.) Through July 31, evening performances are at 7 p.m. Thursday, Friday, and Monday and 8 p.m. Saturday; matinees are at 2 p.m. Thursday and Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday. Beginning July 31, evening performances will be Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m.; matinees will be at 2 p.m. Saturdays and 3:30 p.m. Sundays. Tickets range from $55–$99. For tickets and information, visit Eisenhowertheplay.com or ovationtix.com.
Playwright: Richard Hellesen
Direction: Peter Ellenstein
Sets: Michael Deegan
Costumes: Sarah G. Conly
Lighting: Esquire Jauchem
Sound and Projections: Joe Huppert
