Tale of the times: New Mexico Actors Lab presents politically driven 'JQA'

The play “JQA” draws looks to the past to warn of the future.

Aaron Posner’s play tells the story of sixth American President John Quincy Adams and his political rival Andrew Jackson in an historical mirror of Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

The play opens at the New Mexico Actors Lab in Santa Fe on Wednesday, Nov. 15, running through Sunday, Dec. 3. More information can be found at nmactorslab.com.

The parallels abound, director Robert Benedetti said.

“I chose it because it reveals how some of the vital issues in the coming election were also important and hotly debated by the Founding Fathers.:”

In 1824, Adams, Jackson and Henry Clay (the Speaker of the House) ran for president. Jackson won the popular vote, Adams came in second and Clay was last.

“None of them had won the Electoral College,” Benedetti said.

Clay threw himself behind Adams, who was elected.

“Jackson refused to accept the legitimacy of that election and successfully blocked everything Adams tried to do,” the director explained. “Jackson was a populist; he didn’t care about science. He didn’t care about art.

“Trump has said Jackson is his favorite president,” Benedetti said, “whereas most historians rank Jackson near the bottom.”

Benedetti also found personality similarities.

“John Quincy was a quiet man spent his life in politics,” he said. “He wanted to create a national university and he founded the National Observatory. “He also built roads and bridges. He didn’t get credit for it.

“Jackson won over the working people and beat John Quincy in a landslide (in 1828),” he continued. “That was the position Trump was in when he beat Hillary (Clinton.)”

Posner organized the play as a series of dialogues between Adams and other historical figures, including George Washington, Jackson, Clay, Fredrick Douglass, James Madison, Abraham Lincoln and John Adams, John Quincy’s father.

Benedetti scheduled Posner’s unabashedly blue state play to get it as close to election season as possible.

“The play is sort of a warning,” he said, “a prophecy of what could happen next year.”