"Patriots," by Peter Morgan is a Shakespearean story, but it's also very questionable history. "Patriots" (likely ironically named) shows us Vladimir Putin the villain - and the victim. He rises, taken as a joke, only to remind the world of the reality that he is anything but a jester. As fiction, it's a good story. But as history, "Patriots" opens a Pandora's Box.
Director Rupert Goold gives us an intense, comic show with bravura performances by Will Keen (Putin) and Michael Stuhlbarg (Boris Berezovsky). Just as Iago schemes, so does Putin. Peter Morgan's play shows us two animals, bloodthirsty and power-thirsty, intelligence misused, as we watch the rise of an underestimated man, a jester who would be king, a kind of Frankenstein's monster no sooner created than rebelling against his inventor. Will Keen's Putin has a kind of childish charisma. We want to hate him, as a person, but we still like him despite our desire to dislike. Maybe that, really, is the key to dictators' rise. Their charm makes others tolerate an otherwise intolerable cruelty. Stuhlbarg is a kind of father figure who is betrayed by his wayward son. While these are political figures, that father-son relationship lies at the heart of the story between these two historical figures.
The show is more than worth watching, although it is best taken as story, not history. The two portrayals are riveting. Stuhlbarg is a dynamo, at once likeable and wise, comic and arrogant, academic and scheming as Boris Berezovsky, a gifted mathematician who somehow becomes an oligarch and king maker. The story has a Shakespearean scale. Decisions are all strategy, not humanity. Boxing matches need two pugilists. Arrogance, in the end, is what flips the tables. Hubris can be as dangerous as hemlock. Just look at Shakespeare and "Patriots" whose story shows us this in full force. Stuhlbarg creates the monster that crushes, and betrays, him. Putin the son fells, and then forgives, the father figure.
"Patriots" includes insights into Putin's likely rise, resentment and revenge. Because of Putin's diminutive size, he has to prove his power. And he does it with cruelty, conniving and killing. Stuhlbarg's Berezovsky does his king making out of, if not altruistic motives, a desire to put someone in control that he can control. Berezovsky is at least partly well-intentioned and even comic. Putin is his prodigy, an even more hapless figure. Together they are a little bit like Chaplin's clown cum dictator. The best laid plans of mice and men often put monsters, not mice, at the helm. At least that seems to be the story we are being told.
Will Keen does a good job presenting Putin's mannerisms and scowl on stage. Keen's Putin schemes and struts, living in a small world where only he and the oligarchs exist. He truly captures Putin's character, from mannerism to the bravado of someone who uses the state to add to his stature. Putin always seems to be performing, aware of his audience. But maybe that is politics, as a private identity vanishes. Once Putin has power, he reveals himself to be ruthless, but by then it's too late. Keen shows us a person who enjoys cruelty, but still comes across somehow as a bit kind, rarely losing his temper, and then getting back control.
Putin constantly puts on the face that will benefit him. So who is the real Putin? His hunger for power has consumed his entire person, because in the end, he is empty of everything else. Being underestimated is the way some of the world's worst people have risen. "Patriots" tells that story well. Get people to trust you and they will support you. The use of friendliness as a weapon is on full display in "Patriots," a cautionary tale about the perils of underestimating man's inhumanity to man and how power, once gained, can be easily not used, but abused.
If anything, it seems this play's real relevance to Americans, however, is as an allegory. Its description of the rise of an underestimated outsider - who people think will do their bidding -- has real relevance to the United States. Putin's seen as a lightweight. Instead of being a follower, he goes from clown to "crown," puppet to all powerful dictator. People underestimate everything about him, including his cruelty as he lulls people with a false sense of security. It's a story some people are worried could happen here. Its parallels are clear. Keen's Putin is almost comic, except we hear about his cruelty. The horror isn't here on full display as much as the humor, but it is entertaining to watch these two great actors, a restrained Putin and a "powerful" Berezovsky, share the stage.
Who is the true patriot there - or here? Berezovsky for being deceived, Putin for being dismissed or the rest of us? The answer is, here, patriotism is used as a tool to obtain power. Patriotism can be a powerful or pernicious force. I truly believe "Patriots" is meant to be an allegory for America, but it's also a play about Vladimir Putin. "Patriots" clearly understands Vladimir Putin's maleficence, but it seems to underestimate his fundamental lack of humanity, an underestimating that is the very subject of the story.
Comments