Politics and comedy go hand in hand with Tucson playwright Monica Bauer.
She combines both in her play “The Real Machiavelli,” opening this weekend at Roadrunner Theatre Company.
The play premiered in 2015 at New York’s 13th Street Repertory Theatre. The director of that production, Cheryl King, is directing the Roadrunner show.
Bauer, who has been performing in Los Angeles, answered a few questions by email:
What’s the genesis of the play?
“I’m a very political person; I used to be a political science professor. I used to teach about ‘The Prince’ (by Niccolò Machiavelli), a book that warned practical politicians how to get, and keep, power. It was Richard Nixon’s favorite book. When I became a playwright, I studied Machiavelli’s play ‘The Mandrake Root’ in grad school. I was fascinated by a mind that could go from cold, hard politics to Italian comedy. A few years ago, I read about Christine de Pizan, the first woman to make a living writing under her own name, and the pieces of the play all fell into place.”
What’s it about?
“I describe it as a sexy comedy about the power of love, and the love of power. It’s also a feminist fable, which seems more timely than ever now during this #MeToo moment. I’ve taken a historical fact, that Niccolò Machiavelli, an Italian diplomat and writer, was tortured after the government in his beloved city of Florence changed, and a new dictator took over, changing him overnight from a successful man into a beaten man. In my reimagining of things, his wife is so afraid her husband will never work again, that she sends for his favorite mistress to cheer him up and encourage him to write a book to make money. When Machiavelli is too depressed to write, the mistress, a brilliant actress named Francesca, writes the book for him. Later, when Francesca wants to claim credit for her work, things become far more complicated. In between there are comedic seductions and Italian style comedy, as the plot moves at a faster and faster pace, until the surprise ending.”
What is it you hope the audience takes away after seeing the play?
“I love it when people talk about a play in the lobby, in the car on the way home, and maybe even the next day. I want them to debate with each other, and themselves, who is the ‘real Machiavelli.’ I want men and women to discuss with each other what the play has shown them about the dynamics between men and women, and how much has changed, and how much has stayed the same. I want them to remember the laughs and jokes. And I want them to think about politics, and what’s happening all around us, in maybe just a slightly different way.”
“The Real Machiavelli” is at 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays through Nov. 11 at Roadrunner Theatre, 8892 E. Tanque Verde Road. Tickets are $20, with discounts available. 207-2491 or roadrunnertheatrecompany.org.
