“Let’s get this witch hunt on the road.”
Such were the thoughts of a patron settling in for Arena Stage’s Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been?, billed as a ‘docudrama’ and based on the actual transcripts of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Created in 1938, but associated most closely with the 1950s and the paranoid crusading of Sen. Joseph McCarthy, the HUAC sought to root out Communist influence in the United States, destroying manifold lives and careers in the process. Adapted by Eric Bentley from his book of the same title and directed by Tony winner Anna D. Shapiro, Are You Now or Have You Ever Been? comes to Arena’s Kreeger Theater from its revival off-Broadway.
Arena’s choice to mount this play, now, is consciously and admittedly in response to the erosion of democratic freedoms and rights in the U.S., as was its production of Inherit the Wind earlier this year. The titular question is in reference to the one asked of HUAC victims: “Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist Party?” That question makes for a memorable, if unwieldy, title, and by synecdoche represents the whole show. While Are You Now operates well within the confines of documentary evidence, those confines are still narrow. The period costumes by Johanna Pan are appropriate and well-fitting. The static hearing setup by Andrew Boyce perfectly matches the color of Senate committee chambers. The triumphant 1950s newsreel clips that play prior to the show are informative and mood-setting.
But, the flow of history still requires narrative shaping to be comprehensible, let alone compelling. Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been? is structured as a chronologically ordered reenactment of 17 witness testimonies, one after the other. Those going before the committee range from giants of American culture—like Paul Robeson and Arthur Miller—to figures lesser known in hindsight like Elliott Sullivan and Martin Berkeley. The goal of the interrogators was to get the names of others who should be called before the committee, to in turn cough up more names, in a Ponzi scheme of humiliation and betrayal. The first few testimonies portrayed in Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been? are compelling. Audience members can ponder how they might respond, and see the demoralizing reality that even a principled person, going in with the determination not to betray others, can be worn down by hours of questioning. Yet, despite a talented ensemble cast, the formula grows stale. Paring down the number of testimonies would solve part of this problem, but adding more commentary by narrators or projected words would give sense and structure. The latter half of the show is heavier on these devices, compared to the first.
Some much-needed variation comes halfway through the too-long, no-intermission 105-minute run, when Jewish comedian Abe Burrows (Peter Jacobson) takes the stand. Despite his enthusiasm to help the Committee, Burrows cannot help but do a meandering, comedic delivery of his testimony, sending the audience, but not the committee members, into stitches. The other standout performance is Kevin Mambo’s Robeson, whose calm and purposeful takedown of the logic behind the Committee is the most direct challenge these powerful men face, a sting amplified by Robeson’s Black identity.
The witnesses fall into three broad categories. Those who come out financially unscathed are the people who go in enthusiastic to denounce their fellow creatives for personal or mercenary purposes. Those who try to cooperate without betraying anyone, to their horror, discover that breaking down and giving names will not end their ordeal. They are left physically, financially, and morally drained in the aftermath.
It is only those who refuse to cooperate at all—facing charges of contempt and stints in prison—who keep their souls intact. Like nuclear war, fear of which drove the Red Scare, “the only winning move is not to play” their game.
Let that be the lesson viewers take home.
Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been?, written by Eric Bentley and directed by Anna D. Shapiro, sits in committee through Dec. 6 at Arena Stage. arenastage.org. $25–$97.
