‘Assassins’ slays at the Gate “Shoot a Prez, Win a Prize!”

The Gate Theatre has recently been exploring intriguing ways of providing a more vivid atmosphere and intense adventures which the audience might not have experienced in previous performances. The Great Gatsby invited the audience into the alluring world of Gatsby. Look Back in Anger, on the other hand, provoked the audience attention and subtly made the spectators intertwine the play with the contemporary zeitgeist of our society, by learning about the character’s psychological sufferings and their miserable social condition in 1950s England. Assassins fits right in with this showcase of different theatre styles and fresh variety of theatre in Dublin.

Assassins is a book written by John Weidman which was terrifically transmuted into a vivid, nightmarish performance of “literary-musical” theatre with music composed by Stephen Sondheim, one of the great composers and lyricists in the musical theatre canon. Assassins was first performed off-Broadway in 1990, attracting a diverse audience of those who are theatre-goers and those who are looking for entertainment. The musical style combines “operatic” and popular music, a modification of the more traditional musical theatre model.

The audience members are welcomed into a circus-like auditorium with usher-actors selling lollipops and candy-floss in character, and an atrocious clown doing his make-up onstage. It is all a bit unclear if the actors are acting or interacting with the spectators at the start, until someone actually buys something. There were signs onstage written “Shoot a Prez, Win a Prize!” which flash when a president is successfully shot.

There are nine assassins in the play, who each tried to kill a president in different eras for distinctive reasons. Their insanity and political sentiments are sometimes combined; they have convictions that they are doing the right thing. John Wilkes Booth, son of a Shakespearean actor, shot the President Lincoln in 1865 and yelled “Sic semper tyrannis!” (Thus ever to tyrants!). Others tried to murder their current president because they wanted to free the poor from the oppressive American condition, such as Samuel Byck who was not successful and committed suicide. Similarly, Leon Frank Czolgosz was revolted because of the exploitation of the poor in American, yet he achieved his goal and shot President William McKinley twice in 1901. Some attempted murder to increase their own ego and become famous, like John Hinckley Jr.: Hinckley was obsessed with the actress Jodie Foster, and he tried to win her love through the attempted murder of Ronald Reagan in 1981.

All nine assassins are encouraged to murder the presidents by the horrific clown who constantly watches their actions as if he was a devilish metaphysical influence. The protagonist of the story, Lee Harvey Oswald, is also manipulated by the spiritual forces of the previous assassins. Oswald’s free will is portrayed as being controlled by this dark force of murderers:, and he shot President Kennedy at 12:30pm, November 22, 1963. As a result, all the other assassins gather together in the end, and terrifically shoot the audience.

The audience is present during Oswald’s psychological (and emotional) battle between good and evil. These actions make the audience reconsider to what extent something is right or wrong: if someone kills a president to free the oppressed, would the person be remembered as a hero?

Once again the Gate Theatre has produced something magical and unexpected which attracts different spectators; beautifully combining knowledge with entertainment. Assassins, directed by Selina Cartmell, runs until 9 June.

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