When The Parisian Woman premiered in 2013 at California鈥檚 South Coast Repertory, there were no nods to Steve Bannon or 鈥渓ocker room talk.鈥� For the play鈥檚 2017 Broadway bow at the Hudson Theatre, however, playwright Beau Willimon brings to the stage a very real, very present world and political climate鈥攐ne that did not exist months into Obama鈥檚 second term.
The play, set primarily in a Capitol Hill townhouse, focuses on Chloe (Uma Thurman in her Broadway debut), the wife of a D.C. attorney. When he鈥檚 up for a judgeship, Chloe emerges from the sidelines, using her own variation of political clout to secure the position for her husband. She and the play鈥檚 four other characters navigate not a parallel universe, but rather our own.
Following the 2016 presidential election, Willimon knew his piece, inspired by Henry Becque鈥檚 19th-century farce La Parisienne, required some reworking. 鈥淲hen [the election] did happen鈥攖his cataclysmic shift in the country,鈥� says the playwright, 鈥淚 felt that if I didn鈥檛 address it, the play would instantly feel anachronistic. It would be disingenuous to the here and the now to not acknowledge the fact that we鈥檙e living in a very different landscape.鈥�
Those changes, initially born out of a need to stay true to the times, have in turn 鈥渄eepened the play and added a sharper edge,鈥� Willimon says. Director Pam MacKinnon agrees: 鈥淭he stakes of the world got higher, and it raised the personal stakes of every single character.鈥�
Willimon was first approached by Off-Off-Broadway鈥檚 The Flea to adapt Becque鈥檚 play; at the time, he was unfamiliar with the playwright. Through studying Becque鈥檚 work, Willimon found the playwright existed in a 鈥減ivotal moment in French theatre, where he was bringing France into naturalism but using these forms that people were unfamiliar with.鈥�
Similarly, Willimon lifts chamber play and farce elements from Becque and his contemporaries, bringing them into today鈥檚 sense of naturalism. It鈥檚 a practice that, in its truest sense, can only be achieved in theatre: 鈥淭here鈥檚 an opportunity to do something that鈥檚 very hard to do in film or television, which is to respond to the present tense of the world around us. I wanted to seize that opportunity.鈥�
The Parisian Woman marks Willimon鈥檚 Broadway debut. His 2008 breakout play Farragut North, inspired by his time as a campaign intern, was adapted into the 2011 film The Ides of March, earning him an Oscar nomination for his screenplay. Two years later, he premiered another politically charged adaptation: Netflix鈥檚 House of Cards (he departed as show runner following the fourth season).
He鈥檚 quick to wave aside concern over the perception that he writes exclusively about politics (鈥淥f my 14 plays, only two take place in the political world鈥�). Still, audiences will come in knowing Willimon鈥檚 work largely through the Netflix series, and the writer hopes to surprise them by staying true to the play鈥檚 core: a human story about the balance between ambition and morality.
鈥淚鈥檓 constantly trying to challenge and reinvent myself,鈥� he says. 鈥淭his play has existed predating and beyond my work on House of Cards. My hope is that people will see fresh elements in this and that they find them intriguing and exciting.鈥�
