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New Yorker Critic Reviews 'The Ford/Hill Project,' a Mashup of the Thomas and Kavanaugh Hearings

Doreen St. Félix reviews the documentary play that splices verbatim 1991 and 2018 Senate testimony into a single sixty-five-minute restaging at BAM Fisher.

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What to know

  • "The Ford/Hill Project" splices verbatim Senate testimony from the 1991 Clarence Thomas and 2018 Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings into one sixty-five-minute play at BAM Fisher.
  • Co-created by director Lee Sunday Evans and performer Elizabeth Marvel, with four actors fed verbatim testimony through earpieces, including stammers the official transcript omits.
  • The New Yorker's review frames the production as activist theatre restaging events audiences already know well, questioning its impact as civic urgency is said to be waning.

“activist theatre in a moment when the idea of civic urgency is losing purchase”

Doreen St. Félix, New Yorker critic · The New Yorker ↗ · Sep 18

Lee Sunday Evans Co-creator and director of 'The Ford/Hill Project'Elizabeth Marvel Co-creator and performerDoreen St. Félix New Yorker theatre criticClarence Thomas Supreme Court Justice; subject of 1991 hearing testimony reenacted in the playBrett KavanaughBrett Kavanaugh Supreme Court Justice; subject of 2018 hearing testimony reenacted in the play

New Yorker Critic Reviews 'The Ford/Hill Project,' a Mashup of the Thomas and Kavanaugh Hearings
newyorker.com

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Sep 20Sep 21Sep 22yesterdaynow · 10:46 AM ET
  1. 1

    New Yorker critic calls the restaging 'a theatre of fact' amid waning civic urgency

    Doreen St. Félix's review situates the play as activist theatre revisiting events audiences already 'more than know,' arguing it produces vertigo rather than new revelation, at a time she says civic urgency is losing purchase.

    “the feeling of vertigo…”
    — Doreen St. Félix
    1. 1 outlet The Thomas and Kavanaugh Hearings Restaged as a Theatre of Fact

      first by New Yorker, 4d ago

    • newyorker.com

      “The Ford/Hill Project” splices, cuts, and edits the testimonies produced in two infamous Supreme Court confirmation hearings, resulting in “the feeling of vertigo,” Doreen St. Félix writes.

      newyorker.comBluesky4d ago98▲view on Bluesky ↗
  2. background

    'The Ford/Hill Project' stages both hearings verbatim at BAM Fisher — Directed by Lee Sunday Evans and performed in part by co-creator Elizabeth Marvel, the sixty-five-minute play has four actors deliver the two hearings' testimony verbatim through earpieces, including stammers and halts omitted from the official transcript.

  3. background

    Christine Blasey Ford testifies against Brett Kavanaugh at his confirmation hearing — Ford, a psychologist, tells the Senate that a drunken, seventeen-year-old Kavanaugh forced her onto a bed at a high-school party and pinned her until she escaped; Kavanaugh denies the allegation.

  4. background

    Anita Hill testifies against Clarence Thomas at his confirmation hearing — Hill tells the Senate that while working for Thomas at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission she endured repeated harassment, including graphic references to pornography and a remark about pubic hair on a Coke can; Thomas categorically denies the claims and calls the proceedings a 'high-tech lynching.'