Playwriting 101: The Condi Monologues

Forgive me for seeing everything as a play, but it did occur to me yesterday as Condoleezza Rice took the stage on the floor of the United Nations Security Council to talk about the importance of dealing with sexual violence as a security issue (and of course it is crucial and long overdue) that we were all witnessing bad theater.

Usually there is an arc to a character. A journey. A path. What happens in the first act has something to do with what happens in the third act. I have spent my life inventing characters, plotting out the narratives and trajectories, their ascents and descents, working hard to understand their motivations and needs. In this case, I am completely befuddled. Who wrote the script?

In the third act, our lead character, Ms. Rice, suddenly reveals herself to be a passionate spokesperson for women suffering sexual violence in armed conflicts. Note her dialogue in response to the question Should the UN protect women in these crisis zones?: "I'm proud that today we respond to that question with a resounding 'Yes.' It is our responsibility to be their advocates and defenders". Suddenly Condi Rice emerges as a Republican Mother Courage, defiantly speaking truth to power.

But how'd she get there? What of the Condi Rice of the first act: willing and enthusiastic defender of one of the most disastrous wars in history. A war that rendered Iraq into a barbaric state where sexual violence towards women is so rampant and so accepted it is actually no news at all. A war where one out of three American women soldiers fighting in it have been raped and sexually assaulted by their comrades.

How did enthusiastic war-defender become indignant global defender of women in war? What part of the play did we all miss? Did it happen off stage during intermission? Was there a scene where Ms. Rice accidentally stumbles into the Walter Reade Hospital and meets Ana, 27-year-old U.S. veteran, tied to a respirator in a sexual military trauma ward, after just attempting suicide? Was there a scene in Baghdad, where Condi slips away from a military briefing and is brought by a group of women to an underground shelter where she meets Amira, who shows her the bruises on her body, traces of the rape and torture she endured at the hands of authorities in a detention center? Was there a scene where, after mile-10 on the treadmill, Condi, in an endorphin-driven state, commits to changing her legacy and making her mother proud? Or, was there simply a career crisis scene, where Ms. Rice found herself in the last days of a dying administration, needing to repackage herself?

Maybe there is something deeper all together. Whatever it is, in order for the third act to ring true, have meaning, and not be an insult to the intelligence of the audience, we need accountability. There is always the moment of confrontation in a play where the lead character is forced to reckon, in one way or another. You don't get to be a defender of rights that you are responsible for destroying without a comeuppance, without passing through a dark night of the soul, without admitting wrongs done.

But these days we live in bad theater. The world is run by people who get away with doing all kinds of horrible things, who seamlessly morph into new characters, with even more fabulous careers.

Good monologue. Bad casting.

Comments

[ssb752]

She is perhaps the most naive Sec. of State in U.S. history.
Act one, Sec. of State qualification round: May 22, 2002, in response to question at press conference: "I don't think anybody could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center, take another one and slam it into the Pentagon; that they would try to use an airplane as a missile..."
There were thousands of saliors in the Pacific at the end of WWII that know better than that. Even I've seen Tora, Tora, Tora and The Battle of Midway. What an incredibly stupid statement. Classic CYA.
Yes, image rehab will become the sport of choice of these arrogant neocons as the ship slowly slowly sinks into the historical abyss it deserves. Can you say book deals, sure you can.

[RedDogBear]

I like that, haven't heard it before. Also, there were more up to date examples as well. I can think of at least two off the top of my head. There was a plot to hijack a commercial airliner and crash it into the Eifel tower and to charter a small commercial plane, load it with explosives and crash it into the CIA building. Come to think of it at least three, there was a guy in the 70's who tried to hijack a plane with the intent of forcing the pilot to crash it into the white house. The last guy was shot before the plane took off and the other two never materialized but the point is they were known and any National Security Advisor that wasn't just an "empty suit" would have known about them.

[Passenger57]

Condoleezza Rice ,at the very least,should be charged with perjury.She went before the 9/11 Commission under oath(Bush and Cheney were too smart to do that) and told the monstrous lie that "She never imagined...". A total lie.
Bush went to the G8 Summit in Genoa,Italy in June 2001,amidst extraordinarily heavy security-surface-to-air missiles at the airport, Italian fighter jets patrolling the skies,and all leaders slept on a luxury ship instead of a hotel on land. Bush was to have slept on an aircraft carrier.
The reason? They had received intel that bin Laden wanted to hijack planes and crash them into buildings at the Summit (whether it was true or not).
In a word game,she might say with a straight face, "I didn't lie...I never imagined it because I didn't HAVE to-all the evidence was right in front of my face!"

[Marnie1]

Bush is to stupid to know about WWII.
However Condi is supposed to be educated and should know about the kamikaze pilots.
Also, remember, in the second Clinton administration, a civilian deliberately crashed a small plane into the WH. A man kamikazed his private plane into his own house, killing himself, his wive, who had filed for divorce and destroying the house which she might have gotten in the settlement.
AND an Egyptian copilot lawn darted a passanger jet into the Atlantic shortly after taking off from an American airport. Can anybody say HINT.

The Bushies are and have been consumining themselves with their lies. My only comfort is that the lies are so stupid, historians will be treating the Bushies as a little moron jokes in the decades and centures to come.

[GwenElle]

Great metaphor. Excellent points. I am with you Ms Ensler on this one.

I just don't know what to make of Condoleezza Rice. She is a disappointing puzzlement. Intellect, talent and ability put to absolute wrong use and purpose in the absolute worse administration in American history. That not only her name, but her deeds, will be historically linked to this fact has got to be a matter of great personal shame (or so I'd think).

[RedDogBear]

Great post. Another thing that Condi has ignored are the multiple cases of gang rape committed on employees of Halliburton/KBR by other employees. The victims were further degraded by various types of harrasment meant to keep them quiet and a system that offers them no legal recourse.

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/4/8/exclusivein_their_first_joint_interview_two

[realpolitic]

Condi's new found consciousness is the latter: "Or, was there simply a career crisis scene, where Ms. Rice found herself in the last days of a dying administration, needing to repackage herself?" Yes, there was. Unfortunately, she may return to the safety of her Ivory Tower university instead of facing war crimes charges.

Condi is a phony and as criminal as the rest of the Bushies. She could have used her intelligence to steer the administration to a better place. Instead, she lied about Saddam's weapon's capabilities. She took part in discussions of what torture techniques should be used on prisoners at Guantanamo. She urged Israel to continue the bombing of southern Lebanon to supposedly kill Hezbollah members. Her actions amount to criminlal negligence, arrogance, and lying to the public repeatedly about war and peace.

[Soundofthunder]

Perhaps she was visited by the Ghost of Iraq atrocities past, present and future.

SOT