NoVember - Rated PG-13 for language

Yesterday, my grandparents took Tommy and I to see NoVember. During brunch, PaPa (grandfather) leaned over and told me that he and my grandmother (henceforth known as Goo (because I couldn’t say Gran when I was little)), and their traveling friends decided that we should practice the language of the play so as not to be shocked by the 148 F*cks that Nathan Lane drops during the course of the 105 minute production.

It’s a good thing that we practiced, because the opening few minutes of the first scene, bombs were droppin’ all over the place. You name it, Iraq, Iran (President Charles H.P. Smith was confused about whether or not we were at war with Iran yet or not). 

After a short warm-up period, Nathan Lane, aka President Chuckie, started dropping bombs over his approval ratings, his impending loss in the upcoming election, the reality that he wasn’t going to get a Presidential library, turkeys demanding pardons, and his press secretary who wanted to marry her partner after adopting a baby girl from China. 

At the end of the day, the Commander in Chief opens up a globe, takes out a Bud, and drops a bomb on us - ‘F*ck re-election. This job’s too f*ckin hard’. 

Shocker. 

In November, David Mamet captures public opinion and unleashes it in the Oval Office, sending Laurie Metcalf, Dylan Baker, Ethan Phillips and Michael Nichols on a wild goose chase with the once-and-again-lame duck, President Bush. While Nathan Lane explodes onto the stage and into his role, November’s storyline and Mamet’s at-times-cliche one-liners have a tough time catching up. But when it does, the cast, story, audience, and contemporary politics find themselves rolling on the floor in one giant White House clusterf*ck. 

Moral of the f*ckin’ story? Practice makes perfect, it seems.