“A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing,” one character says in Arena Stage’s latest production. Powerful would have been a better word than dangerous, though. Written in 1946 as an expos? of post-war Washington, Garson Kanin’s Born Yesterday is still surprisingly fresh. Its themes of government corruption, big-business war profiteering and political apathy all resonate just as strongly as they did a half a century ago.
Harry Brock, a wealthy but uncouth junkman from Plainfield, N.J., goes to Washington to ensure the passage of a bill that will give him sole access to the scrap metal littering post-war Europe. He is accompanied by his stooge of a cousin and his lawyer Ed Dervey, the former assistant attorney general, who has helped him “buy” a senator.
There is only one problem: Harry’s mistress, Billie Dawn. A former chorus girl, Billie lacks the sophistication needed to mingle with upstanding Washingtonians like Senator Hedges and his wife. Harry’s solution is to hire Paul Verrall, a writer for The New Republic, as her tutor.
The setting for this political satire is suite 67D in Washington’s best hotel. Working with Arena’s theater-in-the-round stage, set designer Kate Edmunds wonderfully evokes the opulence one would expect from a five star hotel. The furniture is plush, the carpet luxurious and the cigarettes and booze are everywhere. The rich period costumes designed by Mickael Krass also help create eye-pleasing on-stage panoramas.
It is the actors who really draw attention, however. Initially, it seems that Harry, played with a commanding yet oafish presence by Jonathan Fried, will steal the show, while Suli Holum’s Billie seems little more then giggles, curves, great hair and an empty head. By Act II, however, it is clear that Holum’s character is much more than comic relief and that Holum is much more than a character actor. With a little help from her tutor, Billie is awakened to a world of knowledge, and the audience gets to share in the excitement of watching this tabula rasa devour music, art and literature.
If Billie’s education was the focus of the play, it could be easily written off as merely a clever Americanization of Pygmalion. But there’s more here. Her search for truth is contrasted with those seeking to hide from reality. Ed drinks to forget his conscience, the Senator insists on maintaining the illusion of respectability and Harry ignores the fact that his actions have consequences for others.
The only reason such corruption can exist is that the American people, the same mentioned in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, don’t care. And as Paul teaches Billie, the only reason the people don’t care is because they don’t have knowledge.
It would be easy for the play to devolve into an embellished civics lesson, and there are a few minor misses to foil the many highlights. The choreographed madness of the hotel staff at the beginning of both acts doesn’t seem to fit the mood, and the romantic chemistry that Kanin has written for Paul and Billie never fully manifests itself. Thanks to Kanin’s witty dialogue and Kyle Donnelly’s clear directorial vision, however, Born Yesterday is as fun to watch as it is thought-provoking.
