The Originalist at Arena Stage

The Originalist

Arena Stage
1101 Sixth Street, SW Washington

Four-time Helen Hayes Award winner Edward Gero (Red) returns to Arena Stage as one of America’s most brilliant and polarizing figures: Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. When a bright, liberal, Harvard Law School graduate embarks on a nerve-wracking clerkship with Justice Scalia, she discovers him to be both an infuriating sparring partner and an unexpected mentor. How will their relationship affect one of the most incendiary cases ever to reach the nation’s highest court? From Charles MacArthur Award winner John Strand (Lovers and Executioners) comes this daring new work about passionate people risking heart and soul to defend their version of the truth.

Thru - May 31, 2015

Price: $99 - $119

Running Time: 2hrs;one intermission

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The Originalist Reviews

Average Rating based on 4 reviews

Highly Recommended
Recommended
Somewhat Recommended
Not Recommended

Talkin Broadway - Recommended

"...Gero knows how to bite into a juicy character and draw out all the nuances he can find. His Scalia stands on a solid foundation of family, tradition, and devout Roman Catholicism; he has disappointments and occasional crises of faith, but manages to resolve them with a minimum of outward stress. Gero also takes advantage of an opportunity to mimic Strom Thurmond and Ted Kennedy."

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- Susan Berlin

The Georgetowner - Recommended

"..."The Originalist" is of course a set-up play, a kind of fiction that works on our assumptions and biases, the things we think we know about the man, or that we've read about him. It's also a setup in terms of the dramatic situation-Scalia has hired as a clerk a young Harvard law grad who he knows to be a very liberal type, or "flaming" as she describes herself. She's an attractive, bi-racial young woman named Cat, who means to make a lasting impression on Scalia, perhaps even persuade him to reason when it comes to his well-known conservative and sometimes outrageous views on everything from affirmative action, (emphatically against it) to the death penalty (emphatically for it)."

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- Gary Tischler

MD Theatre Guide - Highly Recommended

"...The Originalist is brilliant, witty, smack full of humour and jokes, relevant to the time and brimful of ideas and questions. It is definitely a show you don't want to miss, whether you just like a great piece of drama, want to check out some DC politics in the theatre, or want to go see some excellent acting."

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- Heather Hill

DCTheatreScene - Recommended

The business of judges is to understand and interpret statutes, and in order to do that they commonly try to uncover the intention of the legislature which passed that law. When your job, like Antonin Scalia’s, is to interpret the Constitution, you are divining the intentions of men (and they were all men) who wore breech cloths and stockings, and who have been dead for two hundred years and more.

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- Tim Treanor

The Originalist at Arena Stage

The Originalist

The Originalist Reviews

Talkin Broadway - Recommended

The Georgetowner - Recommended

MD Theatre Guide - Highly Recommended

DCTheatreScene - Recommended

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