Fact of Fiction: Creative liberties?

PBS interviewed playwright David Auburn and asked about creating a story based on real people. Here's what Mr. Auburn had to say:

How did you try to strike a balance between the portrayal of real-life figures with a true history…and the demands of creating your own character for a play?

David Auburn: Navigating the line between being true to broad historical facts and working on a character was one of the challenges. I think the story is historically compelling…other people can say how it feels to them when looking at the history. I think people can come away from this play with a pretty accurate portrayal of the situation at the time.

The relationship with the Russian man [who is part of a blackmail scheme] is speculative. That’s probably the biggest liberty I take. [Editor’s note: Alsop was blackmailed over his closeted homosexuality, but the Russian man in the play is a fictional character.] Alsop’s marriage did dissolve but that all did happen later in the `70s. I moved it back earlier to try to draw some contrasts. His daughter in the play is a composite of a number of stepchildren he had.

Fact or Fiction: How was this created?

PBS ran a great interview with playwright David Auburn when The Columnist opened on Broadway in 2012. Here's what David himself said about the inception and creation of The Columnist.

Art Beat: Why did you decide to write a play about Joseph Alsop?

David Auburn: It’s sort of a long process. It partially began about eight or 10 years ago when I realized I didn’t know anything about the Vietnam War and set about the process of trying to learn about it. I read a number of histories. And the Alsop name kept popping up in footnotes. On the theory that sometimes the minor characters in the quarters of history are the most interesting characters. I read how influential and famous they (Joe and his brother, Stewart) were at the time to the world of journalism and foreign affairs – especially Joe. And it interested me how forgotten he was now. And I asked myself: How does someone go from being so central and so essential to the political dialogue to almost being forgotten? I wanted to get at what a magnetic and flamboyant and complicated person he was, how mercurial he was, how polarizing he was as an individual.

I imagine that one of the tough challenges about writing this play is that he often seems like a very tough man to like. He’s arrogant, he can be a bully, he comes off as a hawk on Vietnam who sticks his head in the sand.

David Auburn: It was one of the compelling things about him. One of the things that I read about Joe is that people had a great attachment to him despite all of the things you mentioned. I’m not really all that interested in writing about characters you like. I’m trying to put interesting characters on stage in a way that shows all their complexity. Writing about someone whose views are so different from your own and showing the complexity of that person can be difficult but it’s a challenge I like.

Peek at the Original Broadway Production of The Columnist

David Auburn's play The Columnist opened on Broadway On April 25, 2012 at the Manthattan Theatre Club. Directed by Daniel Sullivan, the original cast featured John Lithgow (Joseph Alsop), Margaret Colin (Susan Mary Alsop), Boyd Gaines (Stewart Alsop), Grace Gummer (Abigail), Stephen Kunken (Halberstam), Marc Bonan (Philip), and Brian J. Smith (Andrei). Playbill magazine made a little video with the original cast - see what they have to say about this new work from David Auburn.

The Bay Area premiere of The Columnist opens in downtown Redwood City on May 29th. Tickets and more information about the local cast and crew can be found at www.dragonproductions.net.