Apr 5, 2011 – Anyone who was old enough by 1990 will recall the name of Comandante Manuel Antonio Noriega, the military dictator in Panama that the US captured that year.
Noriega had first been on the good side of the US. He was trained by the School of the Americas and worked with the CIA for decades. After Noriega promoted himself as full general and military dictator, as the claims of his violations of human rights increased (he was accused of the horrible murder of Hugo Spadafora as the latter returned to Panama from Costa Rica to denounce him), and as the dictator controlled severely the political scene in Panama, he lost the grace of the United States.
At the end of 1989 the US invaded Panama. General Noriega sought sanctuary in the Vatican’s embassy, but finally surrendered January 3, 1990. The hours prior to Noriega’s surrender are what Donald Freed’s play Devil’s Advocate portrays, with Robert Beltran performing as Comandante Noriega and Tom Fitzpatrick as the Vatican emissary - Archbishop Jose Sebastian Laboa.
Political theater is what Donald Freed does best. English playwright Harold Pinter said that Freed’s “work is a unique and fearless marriage of politics and art.” Devil’s Advocate gives the audience the opportunity to think beyond what has been reported as absolute fact and what has been taught as history. It invites the spectator to consider the degree of involvement of the United States in world affairs, as well as the influence that religious organizations and other sources of power have over the “monsters” of history. Devil’s Advocate forces you to wonder: Can one man attain ultimate power all on his own? And so, is justice really attained when one man pays for the sins of many?
Gutsy, imaginative, Devil’s Advocate looks into a chapter of the American military history book, and, in the way that only theater can, prompts the minds of many, at once, to think.
Devil’s Advocate will play at the Los Angeles Theater Center until April 17 on Thursday through Saturday at 8 pm and Sunday at 2 pm. General admission is $35. Students and Seniors $20. SPECIAL THURSDAYS TICKET PRICE: $10
The Los Angeles Theater Center is located at 514 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA. Tickets can be purchased by calling 866.811.4111 or online at http://www.thelatc.org
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