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Dorchen and Anastaplo square off on “Strauss”

Professor Joel Rich and Playwright Jeff Dorchen

Professor George Anastaplo

In association with Theater Oobleck’s production of Strauss at Midnight, DCA Theater hosted a panel discussion on some topics of the play. The evening centered around comments from playwright Jeff Dorchen and University of Chicago/Loyola University Professor George Anastaplo and was moderated by University of Chicago Professor Joel Rich. Several “Strauss” cast members including David Isaascson (Saul Bellow) and Troy Martin (Allan Bloom) contributed to discussion, as did other Oobleck company members and the general audience of about thirty. 

Mr. Dorchen began with an overview of the play, and touched on some of his inspiration for the script. Mr. Anastaplo followed with a prepared review of the show which included personal insights on the real-life characters of Allan Bloom, Saul Bellow and Leo Strauss. Mr. Anastaplo received his doctorate as a student of Leo Strauss in The Committee on Social Thought at The University of Chicago (1964) where one of his fellow students was Allan Bloom who was also a teaching colleague of Mr. Anastaplo’s in The University’s adult education Basic Program in the Liberal Arts. Among many other topics, Mr. Anastaplo has written extensively on Leo Strauss and Allan Bloom and the topic of “Straussianism” for nearly half a century.

The lively discussion that continued for almost two hours covered many different aspects of the production including: how vulgarity contributed to or detracted from the success of the script; the historical Leo Strauss vs. Dorchen’s Strauss; the beast-like depiction of Allan Bloom; the role of Jews in the play; the inspiration for Scott Hermes’ Niccolo Machiavelli character; the perceived connections between Straussianism and the controversial policies of the Bush administration; the canon of pop culture; and more.

David Isaacson contributes to the discussion