All Powers Necessary and Convenient: A Play of Fact and Speculation

This is quite simply the best 'political' play to have come out of America since Tony Kushner's Angels in America, and it would be a great shame if it failed to reach as wide an audience. Set in Seattle in 1948, the play recounts (in scenes alternating between 'record' and 'conjecture') the persecution of members of the Seattle Rep Theatre and the University of Washington's English Lit department by the State's House UnAmerican Activities Committee. For simply shedding light on a piece of little known but fascinating 'local' history, Jenkins is to be congratulated; for bringing historical figures alive on stage with a ready wit and great sympathy so that we get a keen sense of what's really at stake, he is to be admired; but the playwright's most remarkable achievement is how effectively he suggests that the fight between Left and Right in the US has never abated. That HUAC's legacy impacts still on all our lives. That this is a Play for Today. Indeed it is impossible to read 'All Powers ...' in the wake of 9/11 and Bush's Patriot Act without being forcefully struck by its topicality and relevance. Jenkins reminds us that freedom of speech and thought is constantly under attack. Read his play, along with Eric Schlosser's equally under-rated 'Americans', and you will hear the authentic voice of American Opposition - reasonable, humane, passionate, and far from silenced.