“Straight Line Crazy” is the sort of play often accused of being “talky”. But that trait is inevitable in a piece concerned with political decision-making and ideological debate
half a century, from the 1920s to the 1960s, Robert Moses shaped the infrastructure of New York. Brilliant and devious, a charmer but also a bully, he pretended to be a modest public servant while creating an empire. His legacy includes such landmarks as the headquarters of the United Nations, the Lincoln Centre and the Triborough Bridge. Yet to his many critics he was guilty of a psychotic disregard for pedestrians and cyclists, schools and hospitals.
Whereas the scope of Mr Caro’s portrait is epic, Sir David’s is intimate. It focuses on two moments, 30 years apart: the first as Moses seeks to turn Long Island into a landscaped pleasuredrome, the second when he wants to carve an expressway through Washington Square. The audience encounters him first as an idealist, who dreams of giving New Yorkers perfect vistas and a beach congenial for bathing, later as a man wedded to the wrecking ball.
This is the sort of play often accused of being “talky”. But that trait is inevitable in a piece concerned with political decision-making and ideological debate, and in Sir Nicholas Hytner’s lean production the contradictions of Moses’s life and character are presented vividly. Adamant that he is transforming the existence of ordinary citizens, he recoils from listening to their opinions. Although he wields vast budgets, he never holds elected office.
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