“Thirteen Days” review by Julia W. Rath

Recommended *** “Thirteen Days” is a play based on Senator Robert F. Kennedy’s memoir about the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962 that tested the mettle of his brother, a young President John F. Kennedy. In his adaptation of RFK’s story, Director Brian Pastor has diligently captured the tension of the Cold War era as events edged the nation and the world closer to nuclear war. By incorporating speeches and dialogues from recently-made-public transcripts of JFK’s strategy sessions into his script, Pastor highlights President Kennedy’s keen ability to quickly get to the heart of important geopolitical matters and negotiate competently with Premier Nikita Khrushchev and the (former) Soviet Union. But unlike two world-class movies that brought this behind-the-scenes discussion into the public eye, there is major twist to this production: Every one of the powerful white men in the President’s “kitchen cabinet” is being played by a woman!

At first, I found the gender reversal a bit distracting, since most of the women bear little or no likeness to the men they are playing. The exception is Cameron Feagin, who convincingly channels JFK and has mastered his mannerisms, intonation, and import. She even looks a bit like him! Also notable is Kat Evans as RFK; her feistiness is contagious even if she lacks her counterpart’s physical appearance. Other actors include: Julia Kessler (Dean Rusk), Sheila Willis (Robert McNamara), Anne Wrider (Adlai Stevenson), Andrea Conway-Diaz (McGeorge Bundy), Delia Ford (General Maxwell D. Taylor), Shawna Tucker (Llewellyn “Tommy” Thompson), Noelle Klyce (Ted Sorensen), Kim Fukawa (Arthur C. Landahl), and Maggie Cain (John A. McCone/Valerian Zorin). Their combined acting is excellent and gives the audience a stake in their deliberations on government policy, such that a rather heady 90-minute performance held everybody’s attention throughout.

The importance of dialect and having a dialect coach (Cate Gillespie) cannot be overemphasized. Feagin and Evans had to master Boston accents; Kessler had to learn a Georgia one; and several had to learn Russian accents. This past Sunday, however, there were moments when some actors lapsed but quickly returned to speaking in their proper dialect. This was a noticeable fault, and the gentleman sitting behind me didn’t hesitate to comment aloud whenever it happened.

Costume designer Satoe Schechner must be praised for doing a great job dressing all these women in male costumes from that time period and making sure that everything fit properly. Set designer Jeremy Hollis and lighting designer Liz Cooper each did a respectable job creating realistic backdrops for the action.

City Lit Theater prides itself in making great works of literature accessible to Chicago audiences, so we can draw lessons from them. In this production of “Thirteen Days,” we witness the empowerment of women, whose characters are bright, well-educated, well-informed, and energetic. The larger implication is that women are as much first-class citizens as are men and are more than capable of making reasoned arguments and handling world affairs. Then there is the message behind Senator Robert Kennedy’s original book “Thirteen Days”, which he sums up as follows: “It is human wisdom that is needed not just on our side but on all sides…. [I]f wisdom had not been demonstrated by the American President and also by Premier Khrushchev, then the world as we know it would have been destroyed.”*

These words are just as relevant now as they were sixty years ago. Though times have changed with the end of the Cold War, our nation still faces the threat of nuclear war in addition to domestic and international terrorism and cyberattacks. Unfortunately, too many of us today are looking for signs and symbols of the End Times, with its disastrous implication that our world is doomed to mass destruction no matter what we may try to do about it. Thus when wisdom takes a back seat to fatalism, this only serves to counteract rational analysis and compassion, thus endangering human life as a whole and the future of the entire planet.

“Thirteen Days” is playing through October 24, 2021, at the City Lit Theater, located on the second floor of the Edgewater Presbyterian Church, at 1020 W. Bryn Mawr Avenue, Chicago.

Visit https://www.citylit.org/ to purchase single tickets. The partnering website will inform you of the cost. Alternatively, please call the box office at 773-293-3682.

Note that a subscription to all five plays for their Season 41 is $90.

Performance schedule:

Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.
Sundays at 3:00 p.m.
Plus two Monday performances on October 11 and October 18, both at 7:30 p.m.

For more information, go to https://www.citylit.org/thirteen-days.

Please contact the box office at 773-293-3682 or email them at boxoffice@citylit.org if you had tickets for the original run that need to be exchanged.

Proof of vaccination will be necessary on entry to the facility. Masks must be worn in accordance with city mandate.

*Excerpted from the introduction to the memorial edition of President Kennedy’s 1956 book “Profiles in Courage” (December 1963).

To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go to Review Round-Up and click at “Thirteen Days”.