Show and Tell 2 (All the King's Men)

For my second show and tell post, I chose to write about All the King’s Men by Adrian Hall. The play is based around Louisiana governor Huey P. Long’s rise to power and ultimate downfall and the situations surrounding it. This play is currently being produced by Swine Palace. The play follows the story of Willie Stark through the eyes of Jack Burden, a newspaper reporter who becomes Stark’s right hand man and witnesses his descent into political and personal corruption. The play also takes a look at the relationship between Jack and Anne Stanton, daughter of the former governor of Louisiana, Joel Stanton. Jack’s relationship with Anne is strained as he discovers that she and Governor Stark are having an affair at the end of the first act. Following this revelation, Jack drives to California and develops a very existential and nihilistic perspective, claiming that nobody is responsible for anything they do since life is just a great “twitch.” As Jack returns from his trip, he is forced to blackmail his mentor, Judge Irwin, for governor Stark. The Judge commits suicide and it is revealed that he was Jack’s true father. Following this event, Willie tries to reconcile with his wife after an football accident leaves their son paralyzed. By going back to his wife, Willie angers Sadie Burke, a woman with whom he carried on an affair, and she proceeds to help plot an assassination. After the governor is killed, Jack realizes that there is more to life than the great twitch, and he weds Anne. The play resolves with a message that there is no way to change the past, but you can change the future, or something along those lines.

The playwright’s choice to include a prologue that takes place years after Jack has met Governor Stark intrigued me because, at first glance, it seems very confusing. It introduces the characters to the audience but at the same time, it shows them after they’ve had a significant amount of growth and development. The following scene jumps back in time to when the characters first meet. It is from this contrast that a lot of the intrigue in the play is derived. The audience goes from seeing this well-oiled political presence to a nervous man who doesn’t drink for fear of his wife getting angry. The characters are all introduced to each other at this point in the show as well, so the audience gets to see the real beginnings of all the relationships within the play.

A second choice that I found rather interesting is the way the playwright uses tableau in certain scenes. One of the major examples is during the “Kingfish” sequence. Willie is upstage delivering a speech, but everyone goes into tableau as Jack and Anne carry on a sequence that depicts their entire relationship. The tableau ends as Willie finishes his speech and Jack screams at Anne and the ensemble sings. The effect is chaotic and ordered at the same time, just like the relationships of Willie, Jack and Anne.