Machiavelli
new
play by Robert Cohen
Dramatic
Publishing Company, 2004
The
play takes place in the early 1500s, and centers on Machiavelli’s
infatuation with the ideas of terrorist-general (and Papal son)
Cesare Borgia, and his eventual emergence, after torture and
betrayals, as a political essayist and rueful comic playwright.
Machiavelli
has been produced at the Hayworth Theatre in Los Angeles (2006)
and, professionally (under the title The Prince), at the Pittsburgh
Playhouse, California Rep in Long Beach, Madach Theatre in Budapest,
and in staged readings at the Manhattan Theatre Source and the
L.A. Matrix Theatre. It is published (as The Prince) by the
Dramatic Publishing Company.
Review
Excerpts
“A
perversely funny morality play in which love and democracy triumph
over brute force and political manipulations... Well acted,
surprisingly lighthearted.”
--Los Angeles Times
“GO!
A fascinating rumination on the seductiveness of power, playwright-director
Robert Cohen’s historical drama follows the career of
Niccolo Machiavelli. A layered, literate work… commenting
on the frightening ease with which we shed our humanity with
subtle portrayals of normal folk trapped by history’s
horrors.” --Deborah Klugman, LA Weekly
“RECOMMENDED!
In Machiavelli – The Art of Terror, author-director Robert
Cohen revisits Niccolò Machiavelli with an eye toward
accessibility and balancing history’s biases. In this
intriguing study, Cohen addresses the challenges of dramatizing
history through conversational dialogue with a decidedly current-day
tone. The literate timeliness is fascinating.” --David
C. Nichols, The Los Angeles Times
The
duplicity of Machiavelli’s accomplishments is explored
here by playwright Robert Cohen with unmistakable intelligence
and an extra dollop of both the poetry and vulgarity of the
era. This is a fascinating new play, subtly damning of our current
political misasma, and worthy of a future presented in larger
and more affluent spaces.” --Michael Travis, BackStage
West
*****
“Robert Cohen’s Machiavelli is proof that there’s
still great theatre here in Southern California. Extremely accessible
to general audiences, the play is an enjoyable, informative
show that also serves as a cautionary tale for our time, resonating
across five hundred years. A tight, tense piece of drama: five
stars out of five. --Mark Sikes, showfax.com.
“Machiavelli’s
seduction into power games by Cesare Borgia, followed by a grim
comeuppance, fascinates.” --Don Shirley, City Beat
Dialogue Sample
MACHIAVELLI:
We have decided...
CESARE
BORGIA: We?
MACHIAVELLI:
The Republic of Florence.
CESARE:
The Republic has "decided?"
MACHIAVELLI:
The Florentine Government...
CESARE:
Which one? (CESARE paces the room)
MACHIAVELLI:
The Council...
CESARE:
Which council? Your Six of the Board? Your Eight of the Guard?
Your Ten of Liberty? Your council of Eighty? Your Grand Assembly,
the Thousand and Twenty? “The Republic of Florence"
doesn't decide: The Republic debates, it argues, it votes,
it whines, it reconsiders, it retracts...
MACHIAVELLI:
That's Republican democracy! In action.
CESARE:
Precisely: Inaction. Democracy is inaction. Get rid of your
democracy and bring back your condottieri, Mackie; that's
the only way to get anything done.
MACHIAVELLI:
We got rid of our generals a century ago, Don Cesare. We don't
make war any more, we negotiate magnificent capitulations.
We Florentines are diplomats, not soldiers; we're artists
and tradesmen, not warriors and brutes. You win the wars,
we'll win the surrenders - and the resulting trade agreements.
CESARE:
Bravo, Signore diplomat!
MACHIAVELLI:
And then we rise up, bankers and sellers to all Europe. You
are all fortifications and barracks, Excellency; we are the
Grand Bazaar of Western civilization. You hire Leonardo Da
Vinci to design the artillery to demolish Urbino; we commission
him to paint frescos which will captivate the world!
CESARE:
And to fiddle while Florence burns. Aren’t you still
fiddling around in Pisa? How's that sorry little war going?
MACHIAVELLI:
Pisa’s not honoring our trade agreements...
CESARE:
Pisa’s spitting in your fucking face! You’ve been
fighting with them for eleven years, but you can’t go
in for the kill! They lean, like their fiasco of a tower,
but they don’t fall!
MACHIAVELLI:
Our army...
CESARE:
Your army? Foreign soldiers, all of them! German mercenaries
- who get bought off by the higher bidder? Your Germans want
to keep the war going, ‘cause it’s their paycheck!
You want Pisa back: Get your thousand and twenty out of the
council room and into battle! Get your Florentines into armor!
MACHIAVELLI:
They’d never vote for it.
CESARE:
(audaciously threatening )Round 'em up with fishhooks in their
tongues, then they'll vote for it! (a moment of stunned silence
as MACHIAVELLI considers this.) What do you want from me,
Mackie? Why did you come?
