Sunny Afternoon

The interrogation of Lee Harvey Oswald is the subject of Christian Levatino's docudrama, Sunny Afternoon, now in a workshop production at the Hollywood Fringe Festival.

The play takes place between Nov. 22 and 24, 1963, right after the nation has learned that JFK was gunned down in Dallas. The setting is an office in that city's police headquarters, where Capt. William Fritz (the powerhouse Darret Sanders) has the unenviable task of grilling the just-arrested Oswald (skillfully acted by Brett Fleisher). Knowing that the entire nation is, in effect, watching, Capt. Fritz wants desperately to get a confession out of Oswald. Problem is, Oswald will admit only to shooting a policeman, not the president. On top of that, he proves to be an insolent, obnoxious and defiant human being; in short, a tough nut to crack.

Capt. Fritz's work is made even more difficult by the intrusion of the Feds -- two FBI agents, a Secret Service agent, and a Postal Inspector (Juan Perez, Carlo La Tempa Donnie Smith and Corryn Cummins, respectively). They want to take control of the interrogation and browbeat Oswald into a confession. It turns the office into a kind of circus, with a bunch of semi-clowns screaming profanities at Oswald and at each other, and getting nowhere fast.

Levatino re-creates that sorry bit of history with a sure hand, but there is a built-in problem he and his capable cast can't overcome: we know all about Capt. Fritz, Oswald, and the others from countless books, documentaries and feature films. Unless you can come up with a new angle, a fresh revelation (especially where Oswald is concerned), why go to the trouble of dramatizing this story again? At this point in time, it's not enough to repeat history; it must be illuminated.