STAGE RIGHT THEATRICS is a small politically conservative theater in Dublin, Ohio. It has put on productions of Ferguson, Truth Matters, a retelling of the murder trial of Mike Brown from a conservative perspective, as well as Daily Wire author Andrew Klavan’s play The Uncanny. Stage Right Theatric promotes “Disagreement does not equal hate"® yet it only seems to platform right-wing talking points. It is this contradiction which is fascinating. What art does a theater that believes in this vitriol produce? When given infinite imagination, what art does a reactionary mind think it is creating, and what is actually being produced from that art?
Honor Flight, a 10-minute play written by Edward Bloor is about a supposedly disabled Vietnam veteran named Frank McHugh. Flying up to DC to be interviewed by his district congresswoman Rep. Jarvis, he is met by congressional intern Leslie Clark in front of the Vietnam Memorial. McHugh informs Leslie that though he is a veteran, he had lied about being paraplegic to receive an interview. His goal is to die on live television to glorify himself and embarrass Rep. Jarvis. He overdoses on oxycontin and whiskey, and Leslie Clark records his final words: “God Bless America.” Jarvis, unaware of his death, instructs Clark to make McHugh more TV presentable. The play ends with Clark playing McHugh’s words while looking at his dead body. The play mostly centers around Leslie Clark and the anxiety she faces doing her job while interviewing and speaking with McHugh. What appears on the surface as a critique of how the government and, through Jarvis, the Left, do not value American veterans, the play instead shows us a darker, more depressing look on how the Right does not value human life. The play could easily be ridiculed for its crude and hypocritical depiction of right-wing politics. What is more curious is that the play’s depiction of veteran McHugh is more taboo than an intended conservative audience should be willing to tolerate.
We are quickly shown that Congresswoman Jarvis is a self-centered, abusive boss to her interns. To portray a woman of color in government as cruel and, to quote McHugh, as a “bitch” is not surprising at all. What is surprising is that McHugh’s character should be seen as a foil to all of this, but he is just as selfish. When McHugh and Clark are alone, he immediately gets out of his wheelchair. To Clark’s shock, he had lied that he needed one and said the wheelchair was just for “better optics.” The second and most damning surprise of the play is that he lied in saying that he was exposed to Agent Orange. Stolen valor is seen as reprehensible, but not just among conservatives; to have a character openly state this and not have the play challenge or show ramifications for it is baffling. What makes the message of the play confusing is that by its conclusion, we see both McHugh and Congresswoman Jarvis as selfish, dismissive, and attention seeking.
This would be an interesting critique to the lack of health care and dismissive attitude towards veterans’ needs following service. However, the playwright has shown us two similar reprehensible characters but decided the veteran is the one we should be celebrating. The play unintentionally shows the brand loyalty of a certain type of conservatism. Both characters are repulsive, but since one is a white male veteran, he is good and the woman of color in government is bad. Conservatives often expound that we should hear all sides of the argument, that we shouldn’t judge someone on who they are but by their character. The question left unanswered: why did the play clearly choose a side when both options are equally bad? A much better play could still have these two characters be vile, but show the audience a path where a better future is still obtainable. If the play wanted to show that nothing changes, that everyone is alone and no hope can be found, why make McHugh the hero at the end?
The other message of the play that was muddled surrounds McHugh’s decision to die on live television. McHugh mentions that he has stage four prostate cancer. Though not clearly stated, it can be assumed that once he got his cancer diagnosis, he decided that if he was going to die, it was going to be on his own terms. After he admits to Clark that he has been overdosing on oxycontin and whiskey, he tells her “I’m either going out a hero or a bum in a national park.” McHugh quickly mentions that he didn’t suffer like other vets and looks down on them for how they dealt with their trauma. The disdain that the character McHugh has for other vets who have suffered from addictions and PTSD is abhorrent. He tells Clark to stall Congresswoman Jarvis but that runs antithetical to his plan to die on TV. Instead, he dies before the interview.
If the play was trying to convey that McHugh’s desire was to glorify his death on television, as opposed to the soldiers whose bodies were not allowed to be shown on TV during the ‘70s, it missed the mark entirely. If anything, he died a “bum in a national park” as he quoted. Conservative belief prides itself thinking that everyone is an island, that the self is most important. It takes an individual to make things better rather than bloated bureaucracy. If that idea was enforced in the play, McHugh would have been successful in dying on live TV. McHugh’s death runs antithetical to the message of the play. Going into this play, McHugh is the hero, and though he is a flawed character, he is seen as redeemed but did nothing to work for it. McHugh does not care about veterans, nor does the play. The play shows disdain for people suffering from horrific trauma. McHugh has no empathy for others’ suffering. He didn’t suffer, therefore everyone else is weaker than him. It is that bare selfishness that is fascinating to see, and even more perplexing that it is seen as a positive solely because McHugh was in the military.
The most depressing message that Honor Flight presents is that given free range to say or do whatever a conservative voice wants on stage, the end result is sad, muddled, and angry. Having a message, and especially a political message, would mean inspiring, changing, or enforcing a certain narrative or belief. Honor Flight fails in all of this. What the audience was shown is that in a conservative’s mind, everyone is miserable. Everyone is cruel, selfish, and morally corrupt. It’s not sad that there isn’t a happy ending—it’s sad that there is no happiness in this play. There is no desire to change things. There is no reaction to say, “this is wrong,” and we as a society need to show empathy to each other. We are leaves in the wind. No agency, no control. If we see something abhorrent, we shrug our shoulders.
When McHugh has a chance to say something about the state of vets, to ask for help, to see others suffering and demanding a stop to it, he chooses to remove himself from the problem. He thinks he deserves the spotlight more than the 47,434 Americans that died as stated in the play. Ironically, the play presents itself as caring for veterans, but ultimately shows the true conservative vision: If you are not serving me, you are no use to me. No one is special. We are miserable, self-centered individuals incapable of showing compassion to anyone, and worse, even to ourselves. However, that is why this message and art needs to be challenged. It needs to be confronted and shown that it does not serve the community. Even with the most charitable reading, the play says nothing. With the least, it shows why conservative thinking, ideology, and governance needs to be challenged and disrupted at every level.
