The theater lights dim. From the darkness, in voice-over, Dwight D. Eisenhower (John Rubinstein) recites the lofty words of his 1953 inaugural address:
“My friends, before I begin, would you permit me the privilege of uttering a little private prayer of my own … Give us the power to discern clearly right from wrong … The strength of free people lies in unity; their danger, in discord … For this truth must be clear before us: Whatever America hopes to bring to pass in the world must first come to pass in the heart of America.”
Then, from just offstage, Eisenhower himself breaks the reverie with a cry of “What in the hell?”
So begins Olney Theatre Center’s production of Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground, written by Richard Hellesen and directed by Peter Ellenstein. Ike may at first seem like an unlikely character to give the Hamilton treatment—in the minds of many Americans, his presidency likely seems like the bland, conformist filling sandwiched between the drama of the Second World War and the transformation of the 1960s. It is just that assumption that Eisenhower himself would like to challenge, beginning with a chorus of “hells” and “damnations” that contradicts his staid, “boring” historical image.
It’s 1962. Out of office for less than two years, Eisenhower stews in the study of his Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, farmhouse. His restful retirement has been interrupted by a New York Times Magazine ranking of presidents, which has placed him as a solidly mediocre No. 22 out of 31 leaders. Furious, he turns to his tape recorder to convince historians—and himself—that he is not a failure.
What follows in the next two hours is an engrossing tour through the 20th century by one of its shapers—a man of humble origins who rose, almost by accident, to leadership of the free world. Rubinstein, who as a young boy met Eisenhower, brings the president to life as someone who is both wise elder statesman and irascible older man holding forth at the senior center, full of piss and vinegar. With a raise of his eyebrow, or a twist of his wrists, Rubinstein provokes raucous laughter from the audience, before composing himself in a breath and convincingly philosophizing on the nature of history, human ambition, or prejudice.
From establishing NASA to passing the first civil rights legislation in a century, Eisenhower’s presidency laid the foundations for the more-vaunted successes of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. There were also failures—a weak opposition to McCarthyism, a willingness to let hearts and minds gradually soften on integration, which come out to haunt Rubinstein’s Eisenhower. There are personal regrets as well that dog him—among the most moving is the heartbreak his mother, a pacifist and an early Jehovah’s Witness, felt when her son entered the military.
Aiding Rubinstein in his storytelling is the lived-in midcentury set by Michael Deegan, especially the picture window looking out over a field, onto which projection and sound designer Joe Huppert casts illustrations and historical images—such as troops preparing to storm the beaches of Normandy, which appear as Eisenhower recounts his conversations with these young soldiers on the evening of June 5, 1944. The picture window also enchants with the full life cycle of a summer thunderstorm: rolling in, raging, and petering out.
Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground can best be described as getting to know your grandfather as an adult—and finding out that pops is a lot more with-it than you thought. In a Q&A session after the Sept. 28 show, in response to several questions about where Ike’s words end and his begin, playwright Hellesen affirmed that the most topical, most striking, most unexpectedly modern lines track very close to the historical Eisenhower’s words and opinions. Hellesen pointed to Eisenhower’s McCarthy-era commencement address against book-banning and book-burning, which is quoted extensively in the show, as a prime example of how fresh and startling the former president’s words still are in 2024.
And since it is 2024, one wishes Rubinstein’s performance would be televised for streaming services in the way Hamilton has been. Until that day, City Paper readers should avail themselves of Eisenhower’s freshly extended run. In addition to a fun and instructive history lesson, it is most of all a moral, civic lesson: If being “great” means putting yourself and your ambition first, perhaps being a “boring mediocrity” in service of your country is the highest compliment of all.
Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground runs through Oct. 27 at Olney Theater Centre. olneytheatre.org. $61–$95.