Revived satire of Grenada has that present-day feel

A U.S. president and his advisers engineer the nonessential invasion of a foreign country, with help from an overly pliant American media and public.

That could describe a new play critical of our present war in Iraq. But it also describes "Halcyon Days," a frisky satire by prolific Seattle playwright Steven Dietz, which debuted at ACT Theatre in 1991 and is being revived by Seattle Public Theatre.

For those who don't know or can't recall the 1983 military action in Grenada, decreed by then-President Ronald Reagan, Dietz offers a lively, partisan and highly acerbic account.

If the parallels with the Iraq war are not exact, it's quite clear why Seattle Public Theatre would bank on "Halcyon Days" ringing a bell today. And that it does, despite some uneven acting.

The play unfolds largely from the perspectives of a disgruntled U.S. senator from Iowa, Eddie (Scott Plusquellec); a smarmy White House operative (the well-named Raper, played with panache by Jim Gall); and presidential speech writer Patricia (Kelly Kitchens), who gets a quick education in "linguicide" — that is, using political-speak to bamboozle the electorate.

"Halcyon Days" doesn't give equal time to those who believed the invasion of Grenada was a strategic necessity in response to a bloody leftist coup and the building of a Cuban airstrip on the island.

But the equal-time doctrine does not apply to satire.

Dietz heartily debunks the notion that our incursion into Grenada was warranted. He ties it to Reagan's sinking poll numbers after a terrorist bombing in Beirut killed hundreds of U.S. Marines.

Under Carol Roscoe's suitably brisk direction, the play's action switchbacks between Washington, D.C., and St. Georges, the capital of Grenada.

As Eddie looks on with mounting cynicism, the ultra-slick Raper (think Karl Rove, with more hair) expertly manipulates the media with slogans, photo-ops and political arm-twisting.

Raper also exploits fears that the Americans studying medicine in Grenada are in danger, and need to be "rescued" by U.S. forces.

Eddie's callow son Alex (Austin Farwell) is one of this students. The father-son clash that ensues is an oblique comment on how the politics of those coming of age in the Reagan area veered more conservative than those of their parents.

This aspect of the play would be more convincing if Plusquellec looked old enough to have a son Farwell's age.

Another weakness is Paul Ray's turn as Blonigen, a CIA agent in Grenada who should be funnier, more sinister and less buffoonish.

"Halcyon Days" is most trenchantly humorous when Gall's venal Raper takes charge. And the sexually charged repartee (a feature of many Dietz plays), clicks along nicely here, in the flirtatious friction between Kitchens and Plusquellec, as two Beltway insiders with increasingly different viewpoints.

Misha Berson: mberson@seattletimes.com