Washington D.C. isn’t exactly short of political stories right now but a new play re-creating a bygone scandal is all the rage on stage in the U.S. capital.
Intelligence by playwright Jacqueline Lawton chronicles the controversy a decade ago from when former U.S. ambassador Joseph C. Wilson and his wife, C.I.A. operative Valerie Plame, were at the center of a controversy over President Bush’s disputed claim in a 2003 State of the Union address that Saddam Hussein had tried to buy uranium in Africa.
A protracted showdown played out in which Plame’s covert status was leaked by ‘Scooter’ Libby, a senior aide to then-Vice President Dick Cheney, which was deemed payback for her husband publicly suggesting that the White House’s intelligence was false. He wound up being convicted of a felony.
Despite, or perhaps because of, the Trump Presidency, Intelligence is sold out for its entire run at the Arena Stage theater in Southwest, Washington D.C. It would be surprising if the show didn’t have another life when it finishes next month.
Intelligence eschews an inside baseball, blow-by-blow beltway narrative in favor of supplying a scorching look at the consequences of a public scandal on the marriage of two prominent liberals under fire during a Republican administration.
Plame is played by Tony Award-nominated British actress Hannah Yelland, who now lives in Washington D.C. with her husband Michael Bahar, a former Deputy Legal Advisor to the National Security Staff at the White House who has himself presumably witnessed a fair amount of political intrigue.
We spoke with Yelland about the play.
What inspires Intelligence to chronicle the Plamegate affair over a decade on?
The Bush administration essentially admonished Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson. It’s really about their relationship within the context of the broader theme of war, the reasons for going to war with Iraq and the reasons the Bush administration gave for doing so. In the play Valerie Plame is searching for WMDs because that’s her job as a covert CIA officer but at home she’s coming up against conflict in terms of what Joe is trying to push for. So it’s about how the political story impacts on the personal relationship and how Valerie has to hold these two very volatile balls in the air.
How factual is the play?
The playwright wanted to use the story of Valerie and Joe as a springboard but then also cast it back to the role of women in the CIA and speaking truth to power. How do these people negotiate their idealism with reality? I obviously read Valerie Plame’s book but it’s not a biopic. It’s based in some truth but the story itself is fictitious.
What does Valerie Plame think of all this?
Jacqueline, the writer, has not been in touch with Valerie Plame or Joe Wilson. She lives in Santa Fe now. I was curious but on the other hand I’m not trying to be her. People are coming to see a political thriller based on some real characters, but basically a fiction. If you’re playing a politician in a by-rote trial, I can see that you’d want to get him or her down and get the voice and accent. Within a fiction, you’ve got to bring you to the role. I hope people aren’t coming saying, ‘Her hair’s not like Valerie Plame!’
Why do you think the scandal caught fire to such an extent?
Joe Wilson was a high-profile guy. If he wrote something, people listened to him so he kind of put himself out there. I think it was also the timing- that and combined with the fact the administration were trying to hide what they were doing at that precise moment.
We all thought we would be doing this play in a very different political landscape and it would feel more like looking back in retrospect at a period in time which was obviously incredibly hard where government was trying to cover up what they were doing. Now we’re in a political situation where we have a government at the moment that just tell untruths and try to present them as the truth so it’s interesting in that respect.
So the timing of Intelligence has worked out well?
It absolutely benefits. It brings it straight into the present because everyone is again so fired up about the situation in a way that maybe at the time [of the play] they were fired up about Bush and haven’t been since. You come out of the rehearsal room and watch CNN and you find the two worlds existing. You’re stepping out of one insane world into another….the audience seems to be really talking about it afterwards which is the point. It’s about whatever we can do to keep art relevant.
Joe and Valerie were fighting for freedom and for their country and it really brings into my mind what happened recently when the President stood in front of the CIA wall and did what he did. It’s an American play in every sense and that’s something I’ve never done before.
Do you have any sense what Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson think of the play?
I think they’re curious. But I don’t know the answer to that and I’m not sure anyone does. Ages ago when we were doing readings for this, it was mooted that they wanted to come but I haven’t heard anything since. I would be fascinated to meet them and get an idea of what she thinks. You could be forgiven for wanting to escape the world of it and not go [to see Intelligence].
With Damian Lewis in Homeland and Mark Rylance in Bridge of Spies and now yourself, what is it about Brits playing American spies?
Many American actors have played spies too but I suppose there’s an analytical mind, a curiosity, technique in dealing with the specificity of the spy’s world that British people might be seen to have!
