{"id":89758,"date":"2026-09-03T08:51:33","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T15:51:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/?p=89758"},"modified":"2026-09-03T08:54:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T15:54:15","slug":"a-play-about-standing-on-your-morals-during-mccarthys-red-scare-hits-home-today-in-international-city-theatres-conscience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/eat-see-do-2\/see\/a-play-about-standing-on-your-morals-during-mccarthys-red-scare-hits-home-today-in-international-city-theatres-conscience","title":{"rendered":"A play about standing on your morals during McCarthy\u2019s Red Scare hits home today in International City Theatre’s ‘Conscience’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Welcome to Theater News, a regular column by longtime reviewer Anita W. Harris. Look for it most Thursdays. Or\u00a0sign up<\/a>\u00a0for our Eat. See. Do. newsletter to get it in your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They say history repeats itself. Award-winning playwright Joe DiPietro\u2019s 2020 play \u201cConscience\u201d at International City Theatre brings that home in profound ways. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1950, Sen. Joe McCarthy \u2014 whose alcoholic boorishness is well embodied by Jon Root in this production \u2014 publicly announced he had a list of dozens of card-carrying communists (extreme versions of Democrats, in his view) embedded in the U.S. government that he would root out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This declaration polarized politics in ways reminiscent of today, when our two main parties seem intractably divided and people of conscience seem afraid to voice their opinions lest they be vilified. Who could help restore free speech? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n Link<\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Enter Margaret Chase Smith (Sharon Gardner), a Republican senator from Maine who was the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress \u2014 and the first congressperson to speak out against McCarthyism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her June 1, 1950 \u201cDeclaration of Conscience\u201d speech to Congress called for a change to President Truman\u2019s Democratic administration, but more importantly returning to an \u201cAmericanism\u201d that includes the right to criticize, protest and think independently without fear of reprisal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Typed notecards of Smith\u2019s speech that she annotated are posted in the theater\u2019s lobby, a striking display of how much of what she wrote could apply today. For example, notecard 13 reads:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
From left: Sharon Gardner (Margaret Chase Smith), Dylan C. Wittrock (Bill), Hollis Dohr (Jean Kerr) and Jon Root (Joe McCarthy) in International City Theatre’s “Conscience.” Photo by Jordan Gohara.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe American people are sick and tired of being afraid to speak their minds lest they be politically smeared as \u2018Communists\u2019 or \u2018Fascists\u2019 by their opponents. Freedom of speech is not what it used to be in America.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And notecard 35:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is high time that we stopped thinking politically as Republicans and Democrats about elections and started thinking patriotically as Americans about national security based on individual freedom. It is high time that we all stopped being tools and victims of totalitarian techniques \u2014 techniques that, if continued here unchecked, will surely end what we have come to cherish as the American way of life.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a female politician at that time, though, her speech didn\u2019t have quite the impact she and her staunch aide William Lewis, Jr., or Bill (Dylan C. Wittrock) \u2014 who firmly believed Smith could become vice president \u2014 would have wanted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Jon Root (Joe McCarthy) in International City Theatre’s “Conscience.” Photo by Jordan Gohara.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By contrast, McCarthy and his confident young aide Jean Kerr (Hollis Dohr), who ultimately sides with her somewhat lecherous boss rather than lean into her admiration of Smith, not only dominate the media conversation but do everything to put down Smith and also Bill, whom they denigrate as homosexual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one difficult scene, McCarthy confronts Bill in the men\u2019s congressional bathroom, physically assaulting him while accusing him of sodomy, which was considered a crime at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The four actors, directed by the theater\u2019s artistic director, caryn desai, thus bring to vivid life DiPietro\u2019s engaging and highly relevant script, which explores the personal as well as the political, including painful truths about Smith\u2019s husband that McCarthy digs up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
From left: Hollis Dohr (Jean Kerr) and Jon Root (Joe McCarthy) in International City Theatre’s “Conscience.” Photo by Jordan Gohara.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Kim DeShazo\u2019s gorgeous costuming grounds the play firmly in its 1950s time period, especially Jean\u2019s fitted dresses and Smith\u2019s elegant skirt-suits, plus textured fabrics on the men. And Donny Jackson\u2019s lighting helps differentiate locations, including offices and a train linking government buildings, on Brittany Bodley and Mason Irwin\u2019s brick-and-marble congressional set.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, we learn how McCarthyism was subdued not only by Smith\u2019s efforts but others questioning the fundamental decency of the senator\u2019s aims. It\u2019s hard to discern amid today\u2019s political noise whether we still collectively share that same sense of civility, or whether our tolerance for indecency has grown so much that we accept anything, even if it degrades the freedoms we value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way, \u201cConscience\u201d offers a chilling and sobering \u2014 yet still entertaining \u2014 reminder of how our patriotic ideals are at stake when we allow \u201ctotalitarian techniques,\u201d as Smith called them in 1950, to undercut how we define being American.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

International City Theatre\u2019s \u201cConscience\u201d continues through Sept. 13 at the Beverly O\u2019Neill Theater, 330 E. Seaside Way, Long Beach, with shows Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. For tickets and information, call the box office at 562-436-4610 or visit<\/em> ICTLongBeach.org<\/em><\/a>. Run time is 2 hours, including intermission.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Was this written in 1950 or 2026? \u201cThe American people are sick and tired of being afraid to speak their minds lest they be politically smeared as \u2018Communists\u2019 or \u2018Fascists\u2019 by their opponents. Freedom of speech is not what it used to be in America.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":207,"featured_media":89761,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32366],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[32310],"class_list":["post-89758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-see","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/207"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89758"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89765,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89758\/revisions\/89765"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89758"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=89758"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=89758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}