History Will Not Be Televised

In a weird and exhilarating election year that’s got even the terminally ambivalent talking about America, history, and the meanings thereof, the University of Miami’s Ring Theatre is the only local playhouse in tune with the Zeitgeist, with two deep and deeply strange plays running from February 19 to March 2. Caryl Churchill’s Mad Forest-- which was occasioned by Churchill dragging her grad students to Romania in the wake of the revolution in 1989 -- reveals that almost-forgotten piece of history as a human drama that is anything but settled. Suzan-Lori Parks’s The America Play is about a black Abraham Lincoln impersonator disappearing down the

In The America Play, Lincoln is the good father who went away, leaving his family to scrounge for clues to his essence in the remaining detritus. It’s an idea that has gained gravitas since 1994, when Parks wrote the piece; this year we’re looking for Lincoln more than ever. Mad Forest debuts tonight at 8, and The America Play opens Thursday, February 21, at 8 p.m. Tickets range from $16 to $18. Call 305-284-3355, or visit www.as.miami.edu/theatrearts/ring for performance schedules and tickets.
Feb. 20-March 2, 2008