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Tale of the times: New Mexico Actors Lab presents politically driven 'JQA'
From left, Robert Benedetti and Danielle Reddick star in 鈥淛QA.鈥�
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The play 鈥淛QA鈥� draws looks to the past to warn of the future.
Aaron Posner鈥檚 play tells the story of sixth American President John Quincy Adams and his political rival Andrew Jackson in an historical mirror of Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
The play opens at the New Mexico Actors Lab in Santa Fe on Wednesday, Nov. 15, running through Sunday, Dec. 3. More information can be found at .
The parallels abound, director Robert Benedetti said.
鈥淚 chose it because it reveals how some of the vital issues in the coming election were also important and hotly debated by the Founding Fathers.:鈥�
In 1824, Adams, Jackson and Henry Clay (the Speaker of the House) ran for president. Jackson won the popular vote, Adams came in second and Clay was last.
鈥淣one of them had won the Electoral College,鈥� Benedetti said.
Clay threw himself behind Adams, who was elected.
鈥淛ackson refused to accept the legitimacy of that election and successfully blocked everything Adams tried to do,鈥� the director explained. 鈥淛ackson was a populist; he didn鈥檛 care about science. He didn鈥檛 care about art.
鈥淭rump has said Jackson is his favorite president,鈥� Benedetti said, 鈥渨hereas most historians rank Jackson near the bottom.鈥�
Benedetti also found personality similarities.
鈥淛ohn Quincy was a quiet man spent his life in politics,鈥� he said. 鈥淗e wanted to create a national university and he founded the National Observatory. 鈥淗e also built roads and bridges. He didn鈥檛 get credit for it.
鈥淛ackson won over the working people and beat John Quincy in a landslide (in 1828),鈥� he continued. 鈥淭hat was the position Trump was in when he beat Hillary (Clinton.)鈥�
Posner organized the play as a series of dialogues between Adams and other historical figures, including George Washington, Jackson, Clay, Fredrick Douglass, James Madison, Abraham Lincoln and John Adams, John Quincy鈥檚 father.
Benedetti scheduled Posner鈥檚 unabashedly blue state play to get it as close to election season as possible.
鈥淭he play is sort of a warning,鈥� he said, 鈥渁 prophecy of what could happen next year.鈥�
