A work unfinishing: Margin Notes: Truman vs. Israel

Truman vs. Israel:

Abzug and the Undressing of Truman

Seen on: Friday, 10/24/25.

Helen Laser and Willy Falk as Bella Abzug and
Harry S. Truman. Photo by Darin Chumbley.

Plot and Background

Greenhouse Theater Center presents the world premiere of William Spatz's play, a fictionalized encounter of President Truman and Bella Abzug as Truman contemplates a libel lawsuit against journalist David Rosenfeld.

What I Knew Beforehand

Very very loosely that it had something to do with Truman's relationship with the then-new sovereign state of Israel.

Thoughts:

The play begins with Bella Abzug in the late 1980s having her portrait painted. As she and the unnamed Painter discuss the current state of affairs in the Middle East, she flashes back thirty years to the time she met with Truman to persuade him out of his attempted lawsuit against a journalist who accused him of antisemitism. As Abzug, her associate Don Muller, and Truman himself unpack the evidence it becomes clear that while the president may not be a torch-bearing antisemite and indeed does brag of having a Jewish Friend (TM)--who isn't allowed in the house--there is enough evidence dating back years to show a stark bias that might have fueled his refusal to help arm Israel during its 1948 war with all its surrounding Arab neighbors (also known as Israel's War of Independence). Things come to a violent head when ulterior motives for the meeting are revealed, but don't worry, it sticks to history and everyone survives the play.

I think playwright William Spatz does his work a disservice with its deliberately incendiary title. Keeping the title structure, I'd call it Truman vs. Abzug, or even Truman/Abzug, nodding to Peter Morgan's Frost/Nixon. But with this title, invoking a country who has been embroiled in another war on multiple fronts over the past two years, seems designed to lure its audience in for some controversy. And then within the first few minutes of the opening framing scene, the Painter makes sure to call Israel an apartheid state of occupiers, and he says this "as a Jew," just to make sure anyone who might have a problem with Abzug's ardent Zionism knows that they have someone "on their side," too. To my mind, this backfires and derails from what Spatz and the play are actually interested in exploring. Yes, the play deals with Truman's uneven relationship with the Jewish state, but the actual question of this play is his uneven relationship with the Jewish people.

The work is weakened by its framing device as well, with the Painter returning periodically to discuss with Abzug the details of the story she's relating. While sometimes this device is useful, acknowledging things she understands in hindsight but didn't at the time, more often than not it deflates the momentum and leaves the other actors onstage patiently waiting in the dark before they can try to breathe life into the tension of the moment again.

But these issues aside, what of the play itself: the meat of the clash of strong wills between Abzug and Truman, of Truman's best friend Eddie and Abzug's second, an embittered Don? Well, some of the meat is there indeed. But I think my dreams of a Sorkin-style Clash of the Titans is not yet realized here. The actual parsing of the war, of the delicate and messy politics of the Middle East, are heavily simplified for the audience to the degree that I don't believe the real people would be having such an elementary discussion. I'd rather we do right by them and trust the audience to rise to the occasion. Still, we do have Helen Laser granting us the Titan we deserve, as the unapologetically brash Bella Abzug. Laser plays her with precision, every hand gesture a choice: a fully realized human with vulnerabilities but also the strength to adapt around them and keep pressing her point. In any court case, we'd be lucky to have Laser's Abzug in our corner. Willy Falk's Truman, while affable and friendly, isn't quite able to meet her on her level, and it's unclear if that's down to the actor or the character. Truman as written here is petty where he could be powerful, a gentleman when we might want to see the facade slip and reveal the man underneath. Matt Caplan brings a well-mixed cocktail of crisp professionalism and barely-checked rage to his performance of Don Muller, especially when granted the best monologue in the piece.

All in all I'd say this is a play with potential, but much of it unmet. I am curious how it relates to Spatz's earlier version of this play, Truman And The Birth of Israel.

***

Running: Now playing at Theater at St. Clement's (Greenhouse Theater Center) - Opening: October 16, 2025. Closing: January 4, 2026.
Category: play
Length: 1 hour, 35 minutes, no intermission.

Creative Team

Playwright: William Spatz
Director: Randy White
Designers: William Spatz and Wendy Spatz (Co-Producers), Lauren Helpern (Set), Phuong Nguyen (Costume), Tyler Micoleau (Lighting), Elisabeth Weidner (Sound), Arthur Atkinson (Production Stage Manager), Paul Siebold / Off Off PR (Publicity).
Cast: Willy Falk, Helen Laser, Mark Lotito, Matt Caplan.