In 1991, Anita Hill testified before the United States Senate during Clarence Thomas’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Nearly thirty years later, Christine Blasey Ford found herself in a strikingly similar position during Brett Kavanaugh’s hearings. The Ford/Hill Project puts their words next to each other, and the similarities are infuriating.
Created by Elizabeth Marvel and director Lee Sunday Evans, the Waterwell production is pieced together from the actual hearing transcripts. Nothing needed to be invented. The politicians supplied all the drama themselves. Testimony from 1991 moves in and out of testimony from 2018 until the two hearings begin to sound like they happened in the same room.
Gabby Beans portrays Anita Hill, while Marvel portrays Christine Blasey Ford. Both are superb. They show two women attempting to remain composed while being asked to discuss painful experiences in front of senators, cameras, and the entire country. Beans and Marvel don’t push the emotion. It’s already there in the words, the pauses, and the pressure surrounding every answer.
Teagle F. Bougere portrays Clarence Thomas, and Josh Hamilton portrays Brett Kavanaugh. They’re equally strong, especially when the focus shifts to the anger and indignation of the two men. Hearing their responses alongside the women’s testimony makes the difference in how these four people were permitted to express emotion impossible to miss.
All four actors also portray senators, attorneys, and other people involved in the hearings. At one point, the men speak the women’s testimony while the women take on the roles of the people questioning them. That reversal is fascinating because it makes us hear familiar words differently.
The frequent role changes were also the one part of the production that didn’t always work for me. The actors move from one person to another with very few visual clues, and I sometimes struggled to determine exactly who was speaking. I always understood the larger point, but keeping up with every senator, attorney, and witness became difficult. A few clearer distinctions between characters would have helped tremendously.
At only 65 minutes, the production moves quickly and doesn’t waste time explaining what the transcripts already make painfully clear. Hill and Ford were both allowed to speak. Whether the people questioning them were ever truly willing to listen is another matter.
The Ford/Hill Project doesn’t try to rewrite these hearings or tell us how to feel about them. It puts the testimony back in front of us and lets us hear how often history repeated itself. Thirty years passed. The names changed. The questions barely did.
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The Ford/Hill Project plays at BAM Fisher’s Fishman Space through September 20.
Tickets and performance information are available at BAM.
CAST & CREATIVE:
Elizabeth Marvel and Lee Sunday Evans - Creators
Lee Sunday Evans - Director
Waterwell - Producer
Production Photography - Rebecca Semyne
Gabby Beans - Anita Hill
Elizabeth Marvel - Christine Blasey Ford
Teagle F. Bougere - Clarence Thomas
Josh Hamilton - Brett Kavanaugh