Bloom Where You're Planted

The "Don't Tread On Me" license plate said it all: TRU MP.

In what could only be called foreshadowing, FotoBoy and I followed an enormous white truck with that unpleasant personalized plate most of the way down Patterson Avenue to get to HATTheatre to see "Hillary and Clinton."

Because as we get ready to head to the polls Tuesday, what could feel more timely than a look back at a time when our biggest problem was choosing between a woman and a black man, both whip smart and worthy of the job, to be our candidate?

Good god, was that only 9 years ago?

It was only somewhat mortifying to be the last arrivals - FB was tardy in picking me up - to see the four-actor production. The set was an all-white hotel room, framed in white as if to provide a glimpse into "an alternate universe light years from our own, January 2008 in New Hampshire."

Working from a decidedly strong script, the story follows Hillary, then predicted to lose the upcoming primary, as she listens to advice from her driven campaign manager Mark and politically savvy husband Bill, whom she's asked to join her in New Hampshire despite her manager's insistence that she keep him far away.

Since this is an alternate universe, Hillary is winningly played by Patricia Ali, a black actress who uses calm, measured delivery rather than looks to convey Hillary and her unenviable position of trying to break the glass ceiling without having to avail herself of her husband's money or charisma with voters.

The playwright gives us a Bill Clinton who is feeling his age, needy and contrite, eager to return to his wife's good graces, a man who rests his head on her shoulder, telling her he's lonely and missing her. A man who needs his head patted by his wife to feel like everything is all better now. Jeff Clevenger ably takes the character from marital suck-up to master politician reveling in being right about how to win.

As campaign manager Mark, Billy Christopher Maupin nails the obsessive political insider type that anyone who's lived in D.C. has met at some point. He was especially moving in his scenes disagreeing with Bill, because he knows there's no way to win and acknowledges it in ways both humorous and resigned. The kicker was that he'd already caught the audience off guard when he privately drops an unexpected bomb on Hillary.

What? Wonks have emotions, too? Who knew?

The final character was known only as Other Guy, but we know it's the guy who ultimately took the nomination and the presidency. Here, he's willing to offer her the vice-presidency if she'll lose the next few primaries. It's a small and tightly wound role for Waleed Sami.

Kudos to director Deejay Gray for delivering a solid 80-minute entertainment that never for a moment lost our interest, despite knowing how things turned out, at least in this universe. And nothing could have been more poignant than Hillary's final line acknowledging that she knows she can't ever win.

That said, not much could have been more discouraging than the exchange I had with a server at a nearby restaurant. When she politely inquired if we needed anything, I jokingly said, yes, how about a new president?

"I voted for him, but now I know what a mistake that was," this young black woman tells me to my utter surprise. Gobsmacked, I ask how she could have ever thought he was worthy of being elected.

"I believed him when he said he would make America great again," she says, looking obviously apologetic. "I was wrong. All he cares about is himself." Oh, honey, if only you and your kind had come to that realization a year ago.

So "Hillary and Clinton" turned out to be both a compelling look at what if and a sad reminder of what is now. As for the latter, my only hope is that people like the guy in the white supremacist pick-up truck won't be voting on Tuesday.

And hats off to HATT. If ever there was a time for the intersection of theater and politics, that time is now.