In the very beginning of Jodi Rothe's play "Martha Mitchell Calling," Annette Miller warns the audience, "There won't be any 18 1/2-minute gaps in my tapes, like you-know-who's!" On that note, Miller sets the tone for the rest of the performance, plunging the audience into a Southern belle's gossipy summaries of the real goings-on of the Watergate scandal.
Both the politically savvy and the politically averse will find Miller's comical impressions and anecdotes amusing. Miller performs the role of Martha Mitchell, the extraordinary wife of former President Richard Nixon's Attorney General John Mitchell, a woman who always has a comment about everything. Miller spends most of the performance fondly recounting her life to a tape recorder for her upcoming book in her fuzzy pink nightgown from her equally rosy bedroom. With standard southern hospitality, she invites her listeners into her heart and home. The audience feels intimately connected with this woman who tells all from the comfort of her bed, drinking gin and reliving her past.
"Martha Mitchell Calling," tells of one woman's struggle to expose an administration rife with political corruption. The woman known as the "Mouth of the South" achieved national celebrity status with her famous phone calls to the press about matters the Nixon-era conspirators wanted kept quiet. President Nixon said in a 1977 interview with David Frost, "If it hadn't been for Martha, there'd have been no Watergate." But this powerfully humorous play that dives into the not-always-pretty details of Mitchell's life doesn't undermine her bravery; it is a tribute to her courage and character.
The play stops short of idealizing Mitchell, and instead presents a woman with basic human faults, a heart and a mischievous sense of humor. Rothe stays true to Mitchell's quips and witticisms with such lines as "Nixon is as exciting as a fish stick dinner!" Mitchell's stubbornness lands her in more than one sticky situation with the former president and first lady, many of which she delightedly relates in her one-on-one with the audience.
Mitchell's story centers mostly on her relationship with her husband and her role in his success and its ultimate undoing. What begins as a story of romantic musings, flirtations and innocent games transforms into a dark and complicated tale. Near the end, the woman that viewers have come to love takes on a suicidal, defeatist streak, and the full extent of Mitchell's sacrifices in the name of truth becomes clear. Timothy Sawyer gives a convincing performance as John Mitchell, frequently emerging from his portrait in the bedroom to relive the past during his wife's reminiscences.
Director Daniela Varon creates a play for any American interested in the pursuit of truth and in those who were martyred in its name. Varon is an award-winning New York-based theater director, and her newest production lives up to her past work at over 30 theaters nationwide.
Miller puts on a performance full of heart, evoking the love and sympathy of all in the audience. Miller enlivens the role of Mitchell, and her feisty, uncontainable character does justice to the woman who constantly fought against lies and deceit. Miller is also a longtime member of Shakespeare and Company and has appeared on and off Broadway.
A touching and inspirational portrait in the midst of election season, "Martha Mitchell Calling" is an important reminder of a woman who loved her man, but loved her freedom of speech more.
"Martha Mitchell Calling" plays at the Central Square Theater in Cambridge through Sunday, Nov. 9. Student tickets are available for $18, and $12 rush tickets go on sale the day of the show.
