N/A by Mario Correa at Mitzi Newhouse Theater
Past, Present and Future of US poitics
By: Susan Hall - Aug 07, 2024
Mario Correa’s play N/A is thoroughly entertaining. The two-hander is at the Mitzi Newhouse in New York through September 1. Holland Taylor and Ana Villafane star. Diane Paulus directs.
Two successful political women engage in a battle over the meaning of politics. For N (clearly Nancy Pelosi), counting is everything. If you can’t win, you can’t govern. When A(Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) is calm enough to be understood, she argues that issues are everything.
Politics are engaging. Women’s ascent in this country has been late and lumbered. Hillary Clinton turned out to be terrific on policy but tone-deaf as a politician. She brought us our current problems with a carnival barker (Pelosi’s term). Clinton counted Wisconsin out. She couldn't count.
Played out against recent events, we recall that AOC (the initials she likes, recalling patrician FDR) joined with Bernie Sanders in backing Joe Biden’s continuance in the presidential race. Inside reports indicate that Pelosi had a phone conversation with Biden in which she said, by her count, he could not be elected. When Biden insisted that his pollsters told him the race was a toss-up, Pelosi asked to have a pollster put on the phone.
There is no indication that AOC’s support came based on her political accounting. In the play, she just doesn’t count. There is no indication that she ever will. Playwright Correa worked in Washington for a Congresswoman and became a political junky. He reports that N/A is “heavily researched and lightly imagined."
Correa found it easier to write N: how leaders exercise power. Pelosi staffers attending the play say: “I look up and see my boss.” The younger character was more difficult because her path is new. The question arises: How do we forge progress and keep our democracy intact?
AOC-squad member Ilhan Omar and Pelosi are close. AOC’s relationship does not appear to be. N’s lesson does not resonate with her. A’s insistence that policy is more important than counting seems foolish. You can’t realize policy if you don’t have the numbers. For N, inside legislation is maneuvering. Outside it’s mobilization. You have to listen. Ask what priorities should prevail. Determine your strategy to get it done. Be respectful of all points of view.
This is not a play about character, but rather a play about ideas. Zippy dialogue grips. It’s difficult not to side with N. If you don’t count and lose, you have no power. Counting is step one.
Do you have to care about the future of the Republic to appreciate this play?
Not at all. Generation gaps are clear. Nancy Pelosi is a grandmother. She has been in Congress for forty years. There wasn't a ladies' room near the floor of the house when she first came. She got one. Women couldn't wear pants. She made it possible. She also got the Affordable Care Act passed after President Obama wasted a year trying to cajole the uncajolable Republicans into backing the bill.
Ocasio-Cortez won by door-to-door knocking, while her opponent foolishly ignored her and lost his job. She didn’t count because she went to every door. When she got to Congress. she thought her big ideas would count just because she broadcast them on the internet. N suggests that A may think she’s Jesus, her disciples, followers on social media. You’ll enjoy N’s description of holy pictures.
For many young politicians, A is a role model. Manners are out. Screaming is in. Maybe this is what it is to be young. Does it have to be?
N implies at the end of the play that she is leaving this world to AOC. "Leave it better than you found it," she says.
N has.
Will the 34-year-old A be able to? The older generation will not live to see it; Until then, as Governor Walz says, we will not sleep until we die.
The audience often laughs. Yet the play resonates deeply with people whose hearts ache for our country.
Tickets here.