A pin given out at Opening Night.

November the play was a lot like November the month: late in the year and something you muddle through to get to the really good stuff of Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years and vacation. In the case of the play, the really good stuff is either post-show cocktails or CTG’s next production, depending on your fancy.

I had read November previously and it didn’t particularly speak to me, so when I wasn’t initially thrilled with the show, I was ready to attribute it to the plot having been spoiled for me on the page. But then I realized that I actually enjoyed the play more when I was reading it because in my mind the play escalated. This production felt woefully one note. From the beginning, everything was silly. And also, from the beginning, everything made the president somewhat angry. But nothing ever quite got absurd, and nothing ever made him so upset that he was on the verge of exploding. They say comedy is in the extremes and this production certainly wasn’t.

If you’ve ever taken an improv class at UCB – and perhaps instructors elsewhere teach the same thing – you’ll recall that they often use the President and the White House as examples of characters you can embody or locations you can set scenes in to raise the stakes. November took place in the Oval Office of the White House and the main character was the President of the United States. Yet, miraculously, no one felt like they had much at stake.

I also couldn’t help but notice that the stage had an ample amount of space for the characters performing on it, and that space was not well used. There wasn’t much movement overall, and the few times the characters did try to make use of the space it felt sadly unmotivated. Even when the President’s speechwriter was ostensibly trying to get out the door of the Oval Office, it didn’t seem at all like she was really trying.

Staging November it in an election year right before the election seems like a good idea, and it may have paid off in ticket sales, but the difference between the election year it premiered in, 2008, and the one we’re in now is that the President in office back then was George W. Bush, a very different President than the one in office now. As a result, the show lacked a certain truth, even in it’s fictional satirizing. But it would take more than election to fix this production. A change of direction, perhaps.

For a lengthier discussion with some more specifics from the show, check out the LA Times Review, with which I agree.