FRANKLINLAND
by Lloyd Suh
Directed by Chika Ike
Starring Thomas Jay Ryan and Noah Keyishian
Ensemble Studio Theatre
Reviewed by David Spencer
There’s a whole helluva lot of dramatized malignant narcissism on display this season, and I begin to wonder if it’s become an easy trope. The latest abusive figure is none other than Benjamin Franklin, in Lloyd Suh’s Franklinland. The title of the play is also the title the legendary statesman plans to confer upon land he owns, where he’s hoping to establish an ideal community, up to his standards of humanism, exploration, discovery and cooperation. The play, however, only glancingly concerns its foundation, but is rather about the kind of man who would ideate such a thing (Thomas Jay Ryan); and what it must be like living life as his son (Noah Keyishian).
Though architected upon a skeleton of historical fact, tracing the progression of the two men, together and at length in opposition—Benjamin having become an American Founding Father, while his out-of-wedlock but openly-acknowledged son, William, is becoming Royal Governor of New Jersey, serving the interests of Great Britain—Franklinland fleshes that history out in the manner of a psychological power-seesaw spanning decades. A light-comedy/light-drama two-hander until the very last scene, the dialogue employs today’s colloquialism and contemporary behavioral mannerism; tonally, and adapted to regular TV series characters, none of it would sound out of place in an episode of Frasier, or, in more serious moments, The West Wing. One assumes modern locution is the author’s way of suggesting that this type of family dynamic is timeless—even iconic—and thus who better than a historical icon and his son to hang it on?
The game and the dynamic is set up very early, with the senior Franklin Ben-splaining all kinds of things to William, while coaxing him into being surrogate kite-flyer in the coming lightning storm. The production is directed so solidly by Chika Ike, and the actors dive in with such conviction, that you know within minutes whether or not you’ll make a pact with the style. Or find the darkly-comedic treatment tolerable. I did; my companion of the afternoon did not.
Although, attending well into its brief run, I couldn’t complete this review quickly enough to leave much time for readers to attend Franklinland at Ensemble Studio Theatre, those curious need not have missed it entirely. Theatre audio specialists L.A. Theatre Works currently have it as one of their free offerings, starring Gregory Harrison as Benjamin and Kurt Kanazawa as William, as directed by Anna Lyse Erikson. Go to this URL — https://latw.org/title/franklinland — and scroll down a ways; it’s in two streaming parts. The text of the play apparently mandates its verbal delivery, at least to actors with an ear for its rhythms, because in all the aspects you can hear, the recording is remarkably similar to what is/was onstage at EST.
And, as the existence of that recording may attest, the play has been making the regional rounds. And…since the internet is not constrained by geography, perhaps this review may even provide, for some, a useful preview.