Camping with Henry and Tom

By CHARLES ISHERWOOD

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Camping With Henry and Tom (Pasadena Playhouse; 680 seats; $ 35.50 top)
 
Cast: John Cunningham (Henry Ford), Robert Prosky (Thomas Alva Edison), Ronny Cox (Warren G. Harding), John Prosky (Col. Edmund Starling). One of the dangers of the kind of theatrical inspiration behind Mark St. Germain's "Camping With Henry and Tom" may best be defined by illustration. With the play just under way, we come smack against the following: "So, do you believe in God, Mr. Edison?" That St. Germain rides relatively smoothly over such occasional bumps in the road is a neat accomplishment. His play, a comedy about the encounter between President Warren G. Harding, Thomas Edison and Henry Ford, is livelier than one might expect; in the hands of a trio of veteran actors in perfect form, it also raises some moments of deeper drama that shed some interesting lights on these men, whose lives are perhaps more capably contained in the pages of history than in two hours onstage.
 

Ford (John Cunningham) and Edison (Robert Prosky) were joined on their annual camping trip in 1921 by Harding (Ronny Cox), and the play's conceit has the trio attempting to escape the media glare the august assemblage ignited by hopping in a Model T and lighting out for the wilderness -- rather Disneyland-ish in James Leonard Joy's design -- where they're promptly stranded when the car hits a deer and breaks down.

TX:As they wait for the Secret Service to find them, these symbols of U.S. civilization engage in some predictably uncivilized behavior -- as it's a comedy , they get kooky: Harding and Ford even break into a dance, in one of the play's more whimsical moments. St. Germain posits that Ford might have used such an occasion to blackmail Harding into supporting his presidential ambitions. Cunningham draws a vivid picture of the American tycoon as megalomaniac ("Did you recognize Ross Perot?" I heard someone ask at the play's end). His hard-edged cheer is chillingly comic; this man's patriotic pep talks are delivered with a snarl.

TX: TX:The Pasadena Playhouse presents a play in two acts by Mark St. Germain. Directed by Paul Lazarus. Prosky's Edison watches Ford's assault on Harding with undisguised though bemused disgust, and this actor brings such a variety of jaded inflections to his cynical wisecracks that the superabundance of them -- they constitute the lion's share of his part -- doesn't grow tedious.

But it's primarily Harding, surprisingly, who seems to have engaged the author's imagination. With Ford threatening to disclose some of his dirty laundry, St. Germain imagines a euphoric Harding intoxicated by the dream of freedom from an office he found to be a burden. Cox brings this awkward, humble man to vivid life, and his alone of the three characters takes on a larger humanity, making the historical reality of the man almost incidental.

Director Paul Lazarus has most significantly kept these superbly skilled actors working together rather than at cross purposes. He deftly weaves together the broader comedy with the dramatic confrontations, though there's not much to be done with the clunky symbolism of a dying deer.

"Camping With Henry and Tom" ultimately is little more than a diversion, but it's an ably crafted and amusing one. St. Germain's picture of Harding is memorable, and his idea that the clumsy, sad humanity of this man makes him a figure of honor more worthy of men's respect than history's more applauded heroes is a lovely one.

Set, James Leonard Joy; costumes, Ann Hould-Ward; lighting, Chris Parry; sound, Otts Munderloh; casting, Mark Teschner; dance consultant, Leah Kreutzer; production stage manager, Elsbeth M. Collins; stage manager, Lynn Johnson. Opened, reviewed July 21, 1996; runs through Aug. 25. Running time: 2 hours, 15 min.