Page 14 - aruba-today-20200912

a14 people & arts
Saturday 12 September 2020
Blue staters make their case in satirical 'Coastal Elites'

This combination of images released by HBO shows, from left, Issa Rae, Sarah Paulson, Bette Midler, Kaitlyn Dever and Dan Levy from "Coastal Elites," a collection of
five monologues premiering on Sept. 12.
Associated Press
By MARK KENNEDY you're not even on Twitter clude "Jeffrey" and "I Hate knows a bit about political versy has resurfaced amid
AP Entertainment Writer or Facebook — or Xanax," Hamlet," began the play films ("Recount" and "Bomb- reports that Trump made
NEW YORK (AP) — Play- she advises. a year ago and it was in- shell") as well as funny ones disparaging comments to-
wright Paul Rudnick has Midler, who has not been tended to be performed ("Austin Powers" and "Meet ward the military.
never been comfortable shy about her disdain for off-Broadway. The pan- the Parents"). Rudnick cred- "I was deeply offended at
with the term "coastal Trump and who admits demic ended those plans its Roach and the actors for Trump's treatment of Mc-
elites," that sneering nod to being "enraged nearly but HBO thought it could shaping the works, despite Cain. And I didn't even
to educated professionals every day," is also not shy make the transition to the being spread out over the agree with McCain on
who live in California cities about her respect for Rud- small screen. country: "We were just all of most issues. But I thought
or along the Eastern sea- nick. So Midler's monologue is us thinking on our feet." that man was a hero,"
board. "He is a great observer of now captured by a po- The first one he wrote is the says Rudnick. "And I think
"What's always both- the multitudes of selves we lice interrogation cam- one performed by Midler that man sacrificed in a
ered me is a sense that all carry around inside our- era, Paulson's became a and was created in honor way that almost none of
the coastal elites are not selves, and how we expe- YouTube video, Levy's was of his mother and aunts, us have and certainly not
Americans — that they're rience hypocrisy and trag- transformed into an online women "for whom justice Trump, who was a five-time
not citizens, that they don't edy simultaneously in our therapy session and Rae's and the arts and The New draft dodger. So I thought
count," says Rudnick. "No. lives," she wrote in an email. piece shifted to a Skype York Times were absolutely to insult him in that way just
If you're going to listen to In addition to Midler, Levy call. Rudnick added the plasma." felt like such a hideous kind
everyone in the Midwest, plays an actor at a career nurse's monologue to incor- Rudnick kept writing, shap- of behavior."
then you have to listen to crossroads, Rae portrays porate the coronavirus. ing and editing the mono- Rudnick may be a die-hard
the coasts as well. We are a rich frenemy of Ivanka "The monologue format logues as the pandemic blue-stater and many of
all in this country together." Trump, while Dever is a was ideally suited in many went on, adding Black the actors in "Coastal Elites"
Rudnick has not so much Midwest nurse who comes ways to this kind of remote Lives Matter material after may dislike Trump, but he
leaned into the term as he to aid New Yorkers. Targets filming. You get that inten- the death of George Floyd. hopes the president's sup-
has driven a truck through it include Trump, Mike Pence, sity and that focus that a "I wanted to sort of walk a porters and independents
for the HBO special "Coast Ivanka Trump and anyone monologue demands," he fine line between topicality will also tune in to watch
Elites," a collection of five wearing one of those red says. "It ended up taking and becoming dated." his monologues. He sees
monologues starring Bette baseball caps. exactly the right form. And He included a section a passionate political en-
Midler, Sarah Paulson, Issa "It was just a kind of response that was through no partic- which seems prescient: A gagement all around.
Rae, Dan Levy and Kait- to the world's collective ular planning on my own. character in a monologue "Any divide between the
lyn Dever. They may play nervous breakdown," says But I was very grateful for it." expresses horror at the way personal and the political
stressed-out liberals but Rudnick. "I wanted to show The actors performed their Trump mocked the late Sen. has become nonexistent,"
they're so much more than how people so need to be pieces in quarantine earlier John McCain because he he says. "And that's actu-
stereotypes. heard and understood." this summer under the di- was captured during the ally really the subject of
"There are elements of Rudnick, whose plays in- rection of Jay Roach, who Vietnam War. That contro- 'Coastal Elites' — the fact
truth, but there is also an that politics has become
enormous variety in people not something apart from
on our coast," he says. "Just our lives, but it's in our
the way Trump support- blood stream now."q
ers are always very angry
about being stereotyped, Solution Sudoku
they're very happy to ste-
reotype the coast. And I
wanted to explore that."
Midler plays a left-leaning
retired teacher who re-
counts the time she angrily
confronted a MAGA hat
wearing man and Paulson
is a meditation therapist
sparring with her right-wing
family. "Take a deep, heal-
ing breath and imagine Puzzle on Page 13