RoosevElvis: An Intriguing and Funny Show

The Team

Created by Rachel Chavkin, Libby King, Jake Margolin, & Kristen Sieh

The Team, a Brooklyn, NY based company, known for their devised works, draws on American history and culture to develop their quirky, imaginative material which they tour widely. RoosevElvis, currently playing at the A.R.T.’s Oberon Theatre in Cambridge, brings together two American icons, the early twentieth-century President Theodore Roosevelt and the mid- twentieth-century rock and roll artist Elvis Presley. Today, Roosevelt is often thought of as an exaggerated version of the manly man, as he is presented in RoosevElvis and played by actress Kristen Sieh. She also gives the character an extremely funny outmoded aristocratic American accent. Libby King’s Elvis is a gentler soul who toughens up with karate and whose sexual orientation is vague. Each actress plays two roles.

The first scene, perhaps the most comic, has them perched on two high directors’ chairs, Roosevelt, wearing a long waxed mustache and sideburns, and Elvis in an oversized wig and sunglasses. Speaking with increasing rapidity, they discuss their backgrounds. “I never wrote any of my songs,” laments Elvis; “I wrote forty-five books,” brags Roosevelt. The conversation ultimately becomes so competitive that it resembles a game. Their rivalry continues throughout the play as both men try to flaunt their masculinity. Elvis kicks boxes karate style; Roosevelt punches images of buffalos. The fluidity of gender is an underlying theme. In an odd moment, Roosevelt turns into a convincing and graceful ballerina.

The audience soon learns that Elvis is the fantasy identity of Ann (Libby King), a lonely meat processor in South Dakota, who recently took a trip to Mount Rushmore with Brenda (Kristen Sieh), a well-to-do taxidermist whom she met online. It didn’t work out; Brenda’s classist remarks made Ann feel even more inadequate, with the result that she retreats more and more into her dream world. Eventually, she decides to visit Graceland, Presley’s home in Memphis. Her imaginary companions join her.

At the play’s end, Brenda telephones Ann to encourage her to come out, impressing on her that being gay in the US today is in vogue, and that she needn’t be afraid.

The Team uses a lot of film projections, designed by Andrew Schneider, in combination with set pieces. Numerous screens are placed upstage. The trip that Ann takes across the Badlands to Graceland is beautifully photographed.

Nick Vaughan’s clever set design drives the spirit of the show; Kristen Sieh’s costumes denote character; and Rachel Chavkin directs the play with verve, humor, and compassion.

Plays through May 29, 1016