Theatre 40 Finds That Political Themes of ‘Both Your Houses’ Still Ring True

Mercutio said it first in “Romeo and Juliet.” When he wished “a plague on both your houses,” he was referring to the Montagues and the Capulets.

Franklin Roosevelt quoted Mercutio during the President’s historic struggle for accord between management and union leader John L. Lewis. Playwright Maxwell Anderson used the same quote for the title of his 1932 exploration of graft and corruption in the House of Representatives, the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Both Your Houses.”

The timing for the current revival of Anderson’s semi-factual drama at Theatre 40 could not be better: a presidential election year when the mud-slinging by both parties prompts many to wish a plague on both political houses.

When director Michael Arabian first read the 60-year-old play, he was stunned by its pertinence. “There’s not a word of this play that’s outdated,” he says. “It’s like it was written today.”

“Both Your Houses” deals with congressional shenanigans over a bill concerning the construction of the Hoover Dam. Anderson lays bare the atmosphere of greed, the recycling of favoritism and special interests, and other plague symptoms that have been a part of government from the beginning of time.

Arabian will be remembered for local productions of “Request Concert” and the award-winning “Spring Awakening,” both on The Times’ “best” lists for their respective years. He most recently directed “Krapp’s Last Tape,” “The Sandbox” and “A Slight Ache” at the Mark Taper Forum, and is now appearing in John O’Keefe’s curtain-raiser “The Magician” in the Hudson Theatre’s “Triskaideka” one-act festival.

Arabian hears in the play echoes of political truths reverberating through the years. “What’s very disturbing,” he continues, “is that the play reveals how much corruption there is in the political system, that basically our political system is controlled and organized through corruption and Big Business. It was the same then as it is today. It’s only been in recent years, probably since Watergate, that the American public has really been on to the fact that there has been corruption, all the way from the very top, from the presidency. It’s been going on for as long as this government’s been put together, 200 years. Any government, as Anderson states in the play.

“You see it in these characters, these congressmen, what they’re interested in, what they’re trying to get into this bill, what special interest groups they’re working for, who are controlling them, putting money in their pockets. They really don’t care about the bill itself; they don’t care about the dam, or any of the good the bill could represent. They just care about representing their group, and getting their group attached to this bill so their group can get the money, get the business.”

The actors portraying the politicos exhibit the same intense feelings about the play.

Marcus Smythe, who plays naive, idealistic young Congressman McLean, is a soap veteran who has also appeared in TV movies, opposite Jessica Tandy in “The Story Lady,” and opposite Henry Fonda and Myrna Loy in “Summer Solstice.” He was the nefarious Peter Love on “Another World.”

“Besides the sad fact that it’s about graft and lobbying,” Smythe says, “and lobbyists influencing Congress--it’s as true now as it was then--it’s a very Democratic Party play. Or, before he dropped out, a very Perot party platform play. The play screams for change. The character I play literally screams for change.”

“I’m not sure anyone learns from history,” says William Frankfather, who has just finished filming the remake of “Born Yesterday” with Don Johnson, Melanie Griffith and John Goodman. “That’s the age-old question. They should, yes. We keep hoping people will learn from history, but we don’t seem to be doing a very good job of it.”

Frankfather, who was in the original Broadway cast of “Children of a Lesser God,” plays an unsavory old-line congressman in “Both Your Houses.”

Jay Bell plays a congressman who’s been head of the House Appropriations Committee for 15 years. “He will allow the deals to be made,” Bell says, “and send people out to make the deals, but he won’t take any of the graft himself.” His character gets the bills passed, Bell says, “but he doesn’t take a piece out himself.” But there’s a hint that even this semi-paragon falls prey to the temptations of office.

Arabian says working with Anderson’s script “knocked me out. Everything he has in the play is there for a reason. It’s so well-crafted, so well-structured. It’s a pleasure to do a play by a great writer.

“Because of the education system in this country--you look at a lot of new plays, and you very rarely come across a play that is just well-written on any level, whether it’s structure or character development, or plot, whatever. Generally the themes are exciting, the concepts are exciting, but when you actually apply the specific craft of writing to them, today’s writing falters. It’s great to work with the masters, like Maxwell Anderson.”

“Both Your Houses,” Theatre 40, Beverly Hills High School campus, 241 Moreno Drive, Beverly Hills. Thursdays through Sundays, 8 p.m.; Sunday matinee, 2 p.m. Ends Sept. 13. $14 to $17; (213) 466-1767.