Eric Schlosser is a journalist, best known for his book Fast Food Nation. It is unlikely on this evidence that he will be known as a playwright. His account of the making of the American constitution is the dullest play of the year.
It shouldn't be. It begins with rebellion and cannon fire as, just four years after the American war of independence, the future of the new republic is threatened by economic depression, government weakness and headstrong states. Worried by anarchy in Massachusetts, George Washington and other state representatives spend the summer of 1787 in Philadelphia trying to reach some sort of agreement on the wording of the new constitution. It is the making of modern America and, my, it is a long haul.
The downside of the Tricycle's success with its tribunal and inquiry plays is that some theatres are clearly now labouring under the misapprehension that the minutes of all very long, tedious meetings make for riveting drama. They don't. Schlosser's is not strictly a verbatim play as it muddies the waters by mixing edited speeches with excruciating made-up dialogue. But its style is documentary in both form and in Charlotte Westenra's static production.
It is all courtroom and no drama as the delegates to the Philadelphia convention, clearly not all good men and true, and at times driven by self-interest, do their best and, in some cases, their worst. Part of the problem is that Schlosser concentrates too much on what the constitution included and too little on what it left out. The actors work like demons to inject some life into this inert history lesson, but you know the battle is lost as soon as the horse appears.
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