Actors above reenacting a docudrama about government secrecy and journalistic integrity at Jorgensen last night.

A 'Top' Notch Re-enactment

By: Madeline Ward

Posted: 2/6/08

The Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts held host last night to the resurrection of the radio play "Top Secret, the Battle of the Pentagon Papers," a docudrama about government secrecy and journalistic integrity that is just as relevant now as it was 30 years ago. Top Secret may be the oddest selection out of the current crop of theatre events past and present. There was no set on stage besides the microphone stands, and the occasional table or costume change. With little in between them and the performance, it was just the audience and the actors.

In the background a woman stood with a collection of assorted items such as scissors and a briefcase, which she used to create the sounds of nonexistent props that came up in dialogue. They were used to particular comic effect when a judge was asked to go through the hassle of opening a briefcase which contained a "sensitive" document, which turned out to be just another piece of paper that had been available to the public for four years.

The cast was a heavy rotation of talented character actors. Each played a real life person, and particularly good were the performances of the Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon sound-alikes.

The docudrama is based upon the story of the Pentagon Papers, which were 7,000 photocopied pages of top-secret material on America's war in vietnam leaked to the press by Daniel Ellsberg.

The first act was comprised of three reporters and an editorial staff approaching their deadline. This came in the wake of The New York Times publishing excerpts from the same sensitive documents and facing three months of forced silence by the government because of national security fears.

After reviewing the documents, the reporters and staff come to realize that the documents are mostly records that do not pertain much to the interests of national security. Instead they are a collection of correspondence that was deemed "embarrassing" to the government and classified in order to avoid seeming hypocritical.

Much bickering and uncertainty ensued over whether the government should have a chance to give an opinion on what they might find objectionable. In the end, the owner of the newspaper is called, who makes the decision to publish the documents allowing the people to see what their government has been hiding from them.

The lights dimmed and a brief recess was called out as the stage was set for a second act detailing the legal repercussions of The Washington Post's decision to print the information, after they were also sent the Pentagon Papers.

Igor Senderovich, a physics graduate student, described the play as engaging.

"Of course we are seeing it through a historical lens. In '71 we might have been more patriotic and na've."

The second act continued with even more courtroom drama, as the reporters were hounded by two Nixon administration officials more intent on keeping their jobs than doing them in the interest of national security.

In the end, despite the sparse set, the play grabbed the audience's attention and held it in a way most plays with multiple set designers and million dollar budgets do not. There was genuine applause when the decision was made by Graham to publish the papers.

After the play concluded with a victory for The Washington Post, two political science students weighed in on what the play meant to them.

"The play is relevant to today's situation. Today's administration thrives on secrecy," said Lucas Cometto, a graduate student. "We need to sustain a free press."

"I think this is important to the freedom of speech, it needs to be protected," said Thomas Myers, a 6th- semester political science major.