The special relationship, on-stage
I think I'll give this one a miss.... Caryl Churchill's new play - which has just opened in New York, - depicts the transatlantic alliance as two gay men locked in a "seriously sick" love affair.
Proper names of people (Allende, Hussein, Chávez, Lumumba) and countries (Vietnam, Chile, Iran, Afghanistan, El Salvador, ad infinitum) figure prominently in this talk, with shifting degrees of approval and contempt as Sam’s attitude toward them changes. (Only Israel remains above reproach.)
Sam — whose wired, manic persona punctures any ideas of his being only a stand-in for George W. Bush — is also given to repeating gerunds that define what he wants to do to these foreign folks, either directly or by subterfuge, from bombing to torturing and poisoning.
It all sounds very subtle, don't you think?