First Lady Fights Back!

August 4, 2004 10:11 AM

"Hi. My name is Tony Kushner, I'm a playwright...Ladies and Gentlemen and Supporters of MoveOn: the first lady of the United States, Laura Welch Bush". About a year and a half ago Kushner, the Pulitzer-prize winning author of Angels in America, published the first act of a new play, Only We Who Guard The Mystery Shall Be Unhappy (full text). In it, Laura Bush reads Dostoyevsky to a classroom full of ghosts of dead Iraqi children. Now, (in Salon, I know, I know) the first lady metacriticizes Kushner's play. (more inside) posted by matteo (11 comments total)

[Laura Bush enters.]

TK: Thank you for coming here tonight.

LAURA BUSH: My pleasure, I guess. I didn't like your skit very much.

TK: No, I didn't think you would.

LB: It was sort of insulting, and at times I felt the writing was really muddleheaded, and of course I'm nothing like that.

TK: No, well, it's a work of fiction.

posted by matteo at 10:16 AM on August 4, 2004

why are the words "edited for clarity" so fucking FUNNY when they appear on FAUX?
posted by quonsar at 10:29 AM on August 4, 2004

Nice! Haven't clicked all the links, but does anyone know if there's a photo anywhere of Mitchell dressed up as Laura?

Or god, Angel in America indeed, if there's a video?
posted by Peter H at 10:32 AM on August 4, 2004

Peter, Mitchell in drag
posted by matteo at 10:40 AM on August 4, 2004

matteo - I know that one!
I don't mean just Mitchell in drag, but I mean specifically, Mitchell in Bush, er (excuse that pun couldn't be avoided), I mean Mitchell as Laura Bush.

ps. Don't ever put a bra in the dryer.
posted by Peter H at 11:03 AM on August 4, 2004

The Salon story reports that Mitchell was dressed as, simply, Mitchell.

Both scenes are a nice bit of dramatic imagination.
posted by blueshammer at 11:16 AM on August 4, 2004

Why does she escalate to " irrational antipathy " so quickly? I don't have a subscription, so let me know how it turns out.
posted by ewkpates at 11:33 AM on August 4, 2004

oop matteo - the postscript was a reference to a funny scene from Hedwig, no link available though. Ha, out of context it makes me sound both bitchy and sorta like a loon. But then again maybe I ...
posted by Peter H at 11:47 AM on August 4, 2004

Now, (in Salon, I know, I know) the first lady metacriticizes Kushner's play.

"Now Kushner writes the first lady's criticism of the play." I know "meta" is all du jour, but it left me thinking that the first lady actually -did- criticize...
posted by Ogre Lawless at 11:54 AM on August 4, 2004

fuck you, peter h! I'M GOING TO GUAM!
posted by pxe2000 at 12:18 PM on August 4, 2004

pxe2000 - For "Rent"? Good god! Why?
Calm down, let me just hold on to that passport of yours for a little while, ;)

okay I'll say it:

I for one knew there would be no known photograph of Mitchell in Bush! (rimshot)
posted by Peter H at 12:43 PM on August 4, 2004