“The Other American” reveals part of America’s sordid past

Long Branch’s New Jersey Repertory Company unveils its latest production, D.W. Gregory’s The Other American, a look at unethical acts done in the name of Cold War anxieties. Based on a true story, Gregory’s play chronicles the lifelong effects of clandestine CIA experiments on one man, artist Stanley Glickman, and the ripple effect on those who knew and loved him.

We first see Stanley in the early 1950s as an art student with the help of the GI Bill in Paris. He has a wide circle of friends centered around the local cafes and the studio of noted French artist Fernand Léger, including his girlfriend Sarah. After a chance encounter with another American, Stanley starts experiencing the heightened sensory state indicative of taking LSD. However, the dosage appears to have been so strong that the heightened sensations quickly descend into paranoia.

The other American was Sidney Gottlieb, a research chemist working for the CIA on, among other things, mind control. Gottlieb rationalizes his actions as necessary during a time of war — the Cold War — against the USSR. He considers Stanley’s altered mental state, lasting for several decades, as collateral damage and Stanley as a casualty of war.

In the mid 1980s, his mind somewhat clearer but subject to flashbacks, his artistic impulses gone, Stanley learns of the CIA’s drug experiments with unwitting subjects. With the support of his sister and brother-in-law, he files suit against the CIA, its then-director Richard Helms, and Gottlieb — a legal battle that takes years.

Directed by James Glossman, the cast give sensitive, emotionally gripping performances as the intertwined stories of Stanley and Gottlieb play out. Christopher Daftsios captures Stanley’s shifting emotional and mental states in a finely nuanced performance. As Gottlieb, John Lescault is an unrepentant Cold Warrior, hiding behind increasingly flimsy appeals to patriotism and its own brand of war-fueled suspicions and paranoia.

Eli Ganias, as Stanley’s brother-in-law, gives a rock-solid performance as an ordinary Joe faced with the unthinkable, struggling to do the right thing, and eventually giving non-grudging support to Stanley. Ganias also takes on the roles of a sympathetic psychologist and one of the many judges hearing Stanley’s appeals. Amie Bermowitz is Sylvia, Stanley’s sister, whose unwavering love for and belief in her brother survives a crisis of confidence in his story. She also plays the lawyer defending Gottlieb, with a whiff of exasperation as her client tries and fails to obfuscate the facts with convenient memory lapses. Finally, Naja Selby-Morton is flirtatious and empathetic as girlfriend Sarah and is seriously, doggedly hopeful as Stanley’s attorney.

As usual — and I really should stop using that qualifier — NJ Rep’s technical team has created a scenic wonder on the tiny Lumia Theatre stage. The set, a monochromatic white like a blank canvas, has items and whole wall sections swinging out or down as needed. The lighting and sound designs complement the set as well as the play’s action. The visually stunning projections not only convey Stanley’s artistic talents but also convey moods and mental states with imaginative coups de théâtre. 

Stanley’s sister, an NJ Rep patron, presented the theatre with Stanley’s own journal entries chronicling his shifting mental states. Taken in part from those entries, The Other American is a compelling drama about shameful actions taken by the American government against its own citizens without their knowledge or consent.

In its writing, its direction, its stage setting, and its acting, the play cries out to be seen by the widest possible audience. I cannot more strongly urge you to take the trip to Long Branch to immerse yourself in the experience that is The Other American.

The Other American is presented by the New Jersey Repertory Company at the Lumia Theatre in Long Branch through Sept. 29, 2024. For more information or to purchase tickets, go to njrep.org or call 732-229-3166.