‘Reykjavik86’ @ Dallas Theater Center
—Martha Heimberg
We hear daily reports of still another rogue AI event that could culminate in a global takeover by intelligent machines bent on replicating themselves to the destruction of mankind. Seriously? You mean the offspring of your friendly chatbot can go off and do stuff on their own — like instigate biological warfare?
Yes, seriously. Even founders of major AI companies are begging the U.S. government to convene talks for a global agreement to slow down the building of data centers, pause AI research, and resolve these terrifying existential issues. So, just who is gonna get this tough conversation going?
We’ve done it before.
Dallas Theater Center marks the opening of its 67th season with the timely world premiere of Gabe McKinley’s Reykjavik86, a behind-the-scenes and often comic dramatization of the 1986 Reykjavik Summit that took place in an old embassy building in Iceland on October 11th and 12th. These talks on nuclear arms control are widely considered to be the moment in history when a U.S. president and a Soviet premier — two opposing world leaders — spoke face-to face and at some length on this perilous subject. This began a critical conversation that led the way to a 1987 nuclear disarmament treaty between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
Close call, but we’re still here!
Directed by Jaime Castañeda in his first season as DTC’s artistic director, the play sounds a note of optimism in its depiction of opposing world leaders Mikhail Gorbachev (quietly passionate, disarming Blake Hackler) and Ronald Reagan (bluff, stumbling, and totally adorable Bob Hess), who’ve arrived with their diplomats and advisors to talk about slowing down the nuclear arms race. Nobody wants to deal with the aftermath of another event like the Chernobyl disaster earlier that same year, when a Ukraine nuclear power plant accidentally exploded, “releasing 400 times more radiation than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.” (I quote from a full page in the program notes featuring a detailed timeline of events leading to the talks. Believe me, it helps.)
When the lights go up on the Wyly Theater’s spacious four-sided arena stage configuration, we see a long conference table on a plush red Persian carpet. Two early arrivals are scurrying around. V.A. Pash (polished Frankie J. Alvarez in perfectly sophisticated American casual mode) is an affable, gregarious member of the U.S. Team. He’s doing his best to make conversation with Petra Morozov (bright-eyed but suspicious Tiffany Solano) a wary assistant with the Russian delegation. The two also function as the playwright’s narrators, explaining events that take place off stage, while delivering comically-timed jibes at the customs and weaknesses of each other’s homelands. Like, what’s all this fuss about football?
The play is structured around peripheral points of view, so that we see how the media, the wives and others influence the outcome of the talks. Television news anchor Peter Jennings (reliably excellent Alex Organ) grouses around the edges of the embassy and mansion, bored and irritated that he’s come all this way to be shunted to the sidelines of the peace talks. He opines that he has nothing personally against peace — but it’s not very exciting news. He comments on Reagan’s movie star awareness of where the camera is located, and wonders how Dan Rather, news anchor of a competing TV network, is covering this potentially momentous event no journalist is allowed to witness.
Women may not be at the table, but they definitely influence the outcome. Liz Mikel, impressive in a marvelously coiffed wig and red suit, is hilariously solicitous as Reagan’s wife Nancy, fussing over her precious Ronnie, and rolling her eyes as she recalls that Rosalynn Carter wore the same dress to two inaugurations. Good grief. When her uncertain cowboy gets rattled over all the names and numbers he needs to remember at the conference, Nancy assures him that everything’s going to be fine in Iceland: her astrologer’s been in touch.
In the matching scene, Gorbachev’s wife Raisa (versatile Molly Searcy) assures her sweetly attentive husband that his great intelligence and high-hearted efforts to bring greater freedom and economic opportunity to the Russian people will convince the U.S. delegation he is trustworthy. Searcy also plays the deliciously comic role of Brita Jonsdotter, the effusively cheerful hostess of the Icelandic mansion where all participants are housed. Blonde braids swinging, she makes sure each guest notices the Icelandic saga mural, and insists everyone take regular breaks for tea and a special Icelandic dessert.
Even if some of us oldsters well remember the crucial outcome of the summit, McKinley and company generate some real dramatic tension, in large part because we don’t see the two leaders actually face off until we’re at least an hour into the play. (It runs one hour, 40 minutes without intermission.) Hess and Hackler hammering it out is not to be missed. And nobody is leaving this room until we get to a deal. Or something.
Pash and Petra are definitely awaiting the outcome. Can Petra be smiling?
Playing to four sides of a stage is always a challenge — for both actors and audience. I love the feeling of being in the room where it’s happening, but I missed an occasional one-liner delivered with the speaker’s back to me (and in a Russian accent—though a fine one, courtesy of dialect coach Adrienne Nelson). Yet throughout, the strong nine-member cast and tight direction deliver a heaping spoonful of otherwise dry history with heart, and the always welcome medicine of laughter.
Kudos also to Jessie Amoroso for the perfect period costumes and wigs; to lighting designer Driscoll Otto; and to Fitz Patton for original music and sound design.
WHEN: September 11-27, 2026
WHERE: Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre,
WEB: dallastheatercenter.org
