A man wearing a helmet and carrying a rifle is on the phone. He says “I’m ready. Tell me when.”
This is the democratically elected President of Chile on the day of a military coup in 1973. It is the day when he would die, though that moment is not shown in this play.
What happened would reverberate around the world and set in motion arguments about whether it would ever be possible to have a road to socialism via an elected reformist government.
Luigi Laraia has created a well-researched, watchable play that includes a good deal of backstory on Allende, including some quite eloquent speeches. Rather than turn this into a monologue, the writer invents the fictional, mysterious Agent D (Richard Tanenbaum) whom Allende (Dan Owen) suddenly notices sitting in the room.
In conversation, Agent D, who says he’s not there to hurt Allende, nudges him into speaking about various political and personal figures in his life.
Although it helps us get a fuller picture of this historical figure, it lacks dramatic tension, makes the characters seem unreal and does seem designed simply for Allende to describe his life and ideas.
All the same, it is informative, interesting and performed by a confident cast.