Devine Mulvey

Posted April 20, 2004 12:00 p.m.

June 11th-17th, pages 4-5

Mulvey Mulls

Thirty-two-year-old Julian Mulvey holds dual citizenship - his parents are both British subjects but they were living and working in New York when he was born. He grew up, he says, “in a kind of Americanist household - critically thinking about America rather than necessarily being there.”

And that is why Mulvey’s chosen profession - a Democratic media consultant who is currently advising a number of congressional campaigns - is fascinating all by itself. More fascinating is that his first play, “Rush’s Dream,” running June 11-July 4 at HERE (145 Sixth Ave.), concerns John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Rush, and Adams’ wife, Abigail. Created from the eloquent and surreal correspondence between all these historical figures, the play shows us, Mulvey told Back Stage, how muckraking journalism and vicious political campaigns are hardly 20th or 21st century inventions. They are as old as time.

“Like many people, I was fascinated by David McCullough’s biography ‘John Adams,’ and even though it would seem, in one sense, odd that an English person would be interested in a time in history when ‘we’ didn’t win, it’s a phenomenally interesting period of history,” Mulvey says. “It’s a time that teaches us where America has been, where America has come from, and where America has gone to.

“And while the play takes place two centuries ago,” he adds, “this summer is the most perfect time to have political theatre in New York. There’s going to be so much of it, what with the Republican National Convention, what with street theatre, what with street demonstrations - New York is just going to be hot for politics. The play’s natural opening might have been in Washington, D.C., but New York, right now, seems a much better fit.”

Says director Alexandra Farkas, “‘Rush’s Dream; sees our founding fathers come together to fight for independence and then fall apart over what to do next. It reminds us that the golden age of American politics might have had a few other shades to it.”

Mulvey agrees, saying that while it may have been a golden political age when we recall it with hindsight, “one shouldn’t be blinded by the light that’s reflected off of it. What people miss is the fact that as much as things change, they stay the same. One of my favorite scenes - which didn’t make the final cut, unfortunately - has John Adams writing about ‘puffers.’ Today we’d call them spin doctors, marketing guys. It’s brilliant to have this wonderful phrase and for Adams to be talking about people who are basically political consultants. We think presidential candidates then just came up with ideas while sitting on their farm. In truth, they had people surrounding them and advising them and ‘puffing’ for them, too. Presidential politics today are far more similar than we give it credit for.”

For example, he says, “They had the equivalent of attack ads back then, too. In one of her letters, Abigail Adams cannot believe that Thomas Jefferson paid someone to publish vicious attacks on John Adams. The mechanics and infrastructure we associate more closely with political campaigning today was already in place back then.”

Are there any parallels between the current presidential contest and the one in 1800 between Adams, who tried unsuccessfully to win a second term, and Jefferson? Mulvey says yes.

“Under Adams’ watch, the Alien and Sedition Act - one of the most reviled acts in American history - was passed, and its closest corollary is the Patriot Act. More than that I’m not prepared to say, except that, later on in life, Adams tried his best to distance himself from it. Overall, the one thing I’m pushing is that this is a fascinating story. The goal here is to show that it is dramatic from any angle.”