Tony Kushner

For arts journalists on the theatre beat, here was a news hook impossible to ignore. While terrorists–trained in the caves of Afghanistan–were plotting an attack on American soil, an American fabulist named Tony Kushner had been writing his latest epic, Homebody/Kabul, about Afghanistan’s relationship with the Western world. When the world premiere production opened on December 19 at Manhattan’s New York Theatre Workshop, it felt like an unprecedented coup of artistic intuition. Somewhere in that genius subconscious of his, Kushner knew that the rocky soil of Afghanistan, and the whole kettle of East-confronts-West issues, would be more appropriate subject matter than anyone–anyone else–would have imagined.

The features started in late-November, each flagged with a similarly breathless headline. Beating everyone to the punch (characteristically) was The New York Times, with a piece by Peter Marks headlined "For Kushner, An Eerily Prescient Return." (Also characteristic is the use of the word "prescient" in a headline.) Marks’ lengthy feature established themes that would appear in each drama-of-the-drama piece: Kushner’s longstanding fascination with Afghanistan and its relationship with the West; his doggedly political sense-of-self as a playwright; the play’s genesis, in response to a monologue request from actress Kika Markham; and the concerns among many friends and/or cast members about whether certain lines, or even the whole show, should be axed considering the circumstances.

Wrote Marks: "At one point…an Afghan character, an educated woman who suffers greatly under the Taliban, complains bitterly about how the United States bears responsibility for bringing the ruthless regime to power. 'Well, don’t worry,’ she observes, 'they’re coming to New York!’" Kushner then notes that this "used to be a grim laugh line."

The same themes were mulled in a piece by Alona Wartofsky for The Washington Post on December 12 in a piece titled "An Uncanny Sense of Timing: History Catches Up With Tony Kushner’s Homebody/Kabul" (Wartofsky’s article was reprinted in at least one other paper, The Seattle Times)

"Four years ago, when playwright Tony Kushner began writing a play set in Kabul, the ravaged capital of Afghanistan," begins Wartofsky’s piece, "no one could have anticipated the way the fates of the United States and that desperate, war-torn country would intersect." A compelling lead, though not exactly accurate; as has been noted by certain commentators in the days since that cruel intersection, its imminence (if not its details) could have been anticipated, if only more of us had, like Kushner, been paying attention.

The painful and uncanny quality of the play’s Taliban-coming-to-America remark is pointed out by Marc Peyser in his Newsweek feature, "Tales From Behind Enemy Lines," from that magazine’s December 17 issue; as he did in the New York Times, Kushner explains how "that line used to get grim chuckles." He then explains again how it never occurred to him to cancel the play, and certainly not to alter it:

"Kushner says he never considered changing the play to fit post-September 11 sensibilities," Peyser writes. "'People are going to have whatever reaction they’re going to have,’ [Kushner] says. 'It will be interesting to see what everybody makes of it.’"

For the same reason that Homebody/Kabul was a natural for a series of features, the show drew a stream of reviewers from newspapers far from New York, remarkably so for an off-Broadway production. USA Today, The Washington Post, both Chicago dailies, the Los Angeles Times, and more were represented when, on December 20th, Homebody’s notices began to appear.

Far and away the most laudatory was from John Heilpern, writing in the upscale weekly New York Observer, who was sufficiently moved by Homebody to call it "our best play in [the] last 10 years." "His new play is a magnificent achievement on every challenging, deeply compassionate level," offered Heilpern. "It confirms Mr. Kushner’s place–if confirmation be needed–as our leading playwright, to whom attention will always gladly be paid."

Heilpern then executes a favorite New York City media dance step, citing as evidence for his opinion the contrary opinion of somebody else–in this case the play’s sour write-up in the pages of The Wall Street Journal. "[Kushner] must be doing something right," Heilpern opines, "when The Wall Street Journal dismisses Homebody/Kabul as something sordid that 'might as well have been created by a Taliban playwright.’" No shocker there: The Journal is arguably America’s most conservative mainstream paper, and Kushner is a socialist and a homosexual, even if he did win the Pulitzer.

Most of the reviews fell somewhere between The Observer’s ecstatic welcome and The Journal’s contempt. Richard Christiansen in the Chicago Tribune thought it "a feast of a play," though still "a prickly and flawed work." Michael Phillips of the Los Angeles Times, who’ll soon be moving into Christiansen’s chair, had a similar take, thinking Homebody/Kabul an "uneven, often inspired play."

"Cooler and less effective than [Angels in America]," Phillips wrote, "Homebody/Kabul brings a passionate, critical voice to the conversation about world events."

MEANWHILE…

On December 5 the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), under acting chairman Robert Martin, blocked the release of two previously approved grants: One to the Maine College of the Arts for a perspective on performance artist William Pope.L, the other for the Berkeley Rep’s spring production of (ta-da!) Tony Kushner’s Homebody/Kabul. Eerie prescience or political cowardice? "NEA officials would not discuss the reasons" for their change of heart on the grants, reported the Washington Post.

The Kushner grant, totaling $60,000, was reinstated on December 19, the day of Homebody’s opening in New York. (Maine’s grant for the Pope.L show remains withheld). The (limited) coverage of the grant’s reinstatement featured NEA sources denying that handing over the money after all "was meant to defuse criticism."

On Thursday, December 20, Michael Hammond was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate as the new Chairman of the National Endowment of the Arts. He takes up what is–to borrow a phrase from The Seattle Times piece about Bill Ivey’s leaving the gig back in October–"the world’s most thankless job."

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