BRATTLEBORO — A popular performing artist and former resident is returning to Brattleboro for a most timely show.
For only two performances, on Oct. 14, at 8 p.m. and Oct. 15 at 2 p.m., Seth Lepore returns to the Hooker-Dunham Theater with a new work, an adapted version of Mike Daisey's “Trump Card,” directed by Linda McInerney of Eggtooth Productions.
Although Lepore usually writes and performs his own material, “Trump Card” was written and initially performed all over the country in such prestigious venues as The Public Theater in New York City by Mike Daisey.
As he writes in the press release of his show, Daisey “tells Trump's story from his earliest days, tracking him as he makes himself into a new American archetype - the very first rich man famous exclusively for being rich.” Instead of dismissing Trump as “a simple con artist and huckster,” Daisey breaks down “what makes Trump tick - and in doing so illuminates the state of our American Dream and how we've sold it out.”
Daisey may be the preeminent monologist in the American theater today. He says his work “combines the political and the personal, weaving together secret histories with hilarity and heart,” as he proclaims on his blog mikedaisey.blogspot.com. Recently, Daisey made his monologue about Donald Trump and “all he contains in this particular American moment” available for download so that “anyone, anywhere can perform and give readings of it.”
Cult of personality
When Lepore found out Daisey also made the script for Trump Card open-source and adaptable, he knew he had to jump at the chance.
Using the bones of Daisey's script as a foundation, Lepore chops up and remixes his own personal story, threading in the political quagmires of his home state of Rhode Island.
As he shares his personal perspective, Lepore conveys how the cult of personality is nothing new, from the love/hate relationship the people of Providence had with its long-time mayor, the late Buddy Cianci, to Lepore's second cousin switching from Catholic priest to mayor of his hometown.
Lepore is a former Brattleboro resident who now lives in Easthampton, Mass. He is humorist and performing artist who has written and nationally toured seven one-man shows, three of which he has performed at the Hooker-Dunham Theater: “Losing My Religion: Confessions of a New Age Refugee,“ “SuperHappyMelancholyexpialidocious,” and “Firecracker Bye Bye.”
On his website, he descibes his most recent show, “Kickin' Ass and Takin' Names,” as an “audience-driven ... interactive, completely improvised, character-based show based on suggestions written on index cards by the audience pre-show.”
“I have been a long admirer of Daisey's work,” Lepore told The Commons. “He is drawn to megalomaniac types in all of his monologues, such as in his very popular 'The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs.'”
Creative commons
Daisey made his controversial script for Jobs available in the same way as “Trump Card,“ which prompted 200 unique productions across the world which he also made free for artists to perform and adapt.
Lepore thinks that Daisey didn't know how large his subject would be when he began working on Trump. He explains, “Mike started writing his show before Trump went down the escalator and become the nominee. And as things keep evolving, Mike thought to himself, 'Wow, can the show be really turning into this!'”
Lepore suspects that his audiences for “Trump Card” will probably be at best 10 percent Trump supporters, but he doesn't believe this work is simply preaching to the choir. Rather, in some ways, it is critiquing it.
“'Trump Card' may be judgmental, but not in the sense that it is left or right in its political leanings,” Lepore says. “This work leaves no punches, as it proposes that we all are responsible for the Trump phenomenon in a show that explores the cultural effect of his candidacy.”
Lepore says that in more than 40 years he can honestly say he has never seen anything like this on the political level, ever.
Stories of his own
“I would not have been able to even fathom something such as this before,” he says. “At the same time, I think that it is very important to look the implications of this moment. Cultures saw dictatorships overtake them, and whether they could or not stop it, there is a need to explore what is happening.”
Lepore admits that he has adapted “Trump Card” to suit his stage persona.
“I am a very different kind of performer than Daisey,” he says. Since Daisey encourages writers to change the piece to suit their needs, Lepore cut out the material concerning Daisey's personal life, and interjected relevant stories of his own.
“Being a performer myself makes me especially relate to Trump, who is very much a creature of the media,” Lepore confesses. “Neither Mike nor I try to perform Trump in the show; he does that well enough himself. Indeed, Trump is a consummate performer. He may be the best improviser I have ever seen. Whatever you may think of him, he is really good at what he does.”