In The Devil's Advocate, Donald Freed not only uncovers the cesspit of contemporary politics but shoves our nose into it. His two-character play, now in its U.S. premiere at Los Angeles Theater Center, is set in Panama in 1989. The setting is the residence of The Archbishop (Tom Fitzpatrick), where the embattled General Manuel Noriega (Robert Beltran) is making his last stand. Surrounded by the CIA and U.S. soldiers who have not only deposed the Central American strongman but are shrieking for his scalp, Noriega begs The Archbishop, a Vatican emissary known as The Grand Inquisitor, to help him escape his enemies by finding sanctuary in a foreign embassy.
On one level, The Devil's Advocate is a character study of two troubled, powerful men caught up in a life and death struggle. On a second, deeper level it is an expose, an uncovering of the secret, dirty history of our time. Noriega, who fought his way up out of poverty and racism to become Panama's ruler, was once supported -- make that used -- by the CIA. Noriega laundered drug money for the spooks and did other covert jobs for them. In return, the spooks lavished wealth and power on him, propping his regime up.
All that changed when The General refused to let the USA use Panama as a launching pad for its military attack on leftist Nicaragua. Out of vengeance, the USA not only turned on Noriega, accusing him of murder and drug-trafficking, but
sicced its legions on him.
As Freed shows, all the big players in Panama had dirty hands -- including The Archbishop himself. Far from being a force for good, a man of God, The Archbishop was every bit as compromised and corrupt as Noriega and the CIA.
All this comes out in the course of Devil's Advocate, which is distinguished by Freed's polemical but fiery, brave writing, and by the tour-de-force performances of its two actors. Beltran is particularly memorable as Noriega, capturing his many sides -- his macho swagger, raging-bull anger, craven fear, soul-destroying anguish and resentment -- in superb, breathtaking fashion.
