Presidents have had a complicated relationships with theater in D.C., chief of which was Lincoln’s visit to Ford’s Theater 149 years ago.
Many presidents haven’t had time to take in a show– even when retired.
But Jimmy and Roslynn Carter, longtime theater fans, attended the opening night of “Camp David” at Arena Stage in Washington Thursday. It was not only the first time a president had attended Arena, artistic director Molly Smith said, it was the first time any former president and his wife have ever seen a play about themselves without reading it beforehand.
“Camp David,” by Lawrence Wright, from extensive research into the Carter papers, covers the historic 13 day meeting in the Maryland woods between the presidents of the U.S. and Egypt and the Prime Minister of Israel in 1978.
How strange it must have been for the Carters to sit and see themselves portrayed by Richard Thomas an Hallie Foote.
The 90 minute production ends with Ron Rifkin’s Menachem Begin in tears as he agrees to sign the peace agreement on behalf of his grandchildren. But Rifkin’s own tears were real when the president and Mrs. Carter were led on to the stage to embrace the cast and take a bow like first source authors.
(And what a strange thing it must have been for Thomas — TV’s JohnBoy — and Foote portraying the couple in 1978, right in front of them in 2014.).
Anwar Sedat’s widow was also in attendance and made her own way to the stage to embrace the actor who portrayed her husband, Khaled Nabawy, and the cast. Together, they also basked in the surreal, time-traveling moment, revisiting hope at a time when similar issues are still being discussed decades later, while ambitions toward Middle East peace are still kindling like logs in a Camp David fireplace.