The Ask tickets

great time and acting thank you

Matthew Freeman's The Ask asks a very serious question about causes, their fundraising, and the importance of "mission". What he does not do, although sometimes he seems to, is question whether any given mission of providing social justice is wrong on its face. The ASK finds a very rich widowed Greta (brilliantly played by very vital Marilu Henner) being asked for a very significant donation to the ACLU by Tanner (a solid performance by Shannon Purser). Greta has supported the ACLU and it mission to support Constitutional Rights and Women's Reproductive Rights for over 30-years. The year before this meeting Greta did not provide a donation. The plot revolves around her reasons for stopping her support, the importance of mission, political reprisals within a "non-partisan" group and the legitimacy of donors dictating the direction of an organization. Greta believes that the ACLU lost the Dobbs Case because it lost its focus. She thinks that moving into areas of private social justice rather than concentrating on government interference with constitutional rights betrayed the ACLU's mission. Tanner continues to spout the corporate line and refuses to move off that line throughput the conversation. The point is brought home by Tanner's refusal to use the word "Woman", even when discussing abortion rights. Underlying Greta's feelings is her suspecting that her old ACLU contact, "Carol", was purged because she disagreed with the organization's direction. Most movements do fall short because they fail to protect their central mission. "Black Lives Matter", if it had been able to maintain its initial purpose of forcing representatives of government to do their duty and practice racially and sexually neutral enforcement of laws and to always follow the law was completely unobjectionable. It should have been supported and endorsed by all groups. But it was quickly coopted by multiple groups that had agendas divorced from the central purpose of Black Lives Matter and the movement failed as those groups opened the entire movement to attack. If there is a weakness in The ASK, it is Tanner's failure to provide any legitimate arguments supporting the ACLU's journey into identity politics. She also is unable to object, when Greta demands that her donation use be restricted to a cause which she identifies. Freeman, wisely, never says that any social justice movement is wrong, but fails, perhaps deliberately, perhaps because Greta's position is correct, to defend the diffusion of interests that most corporations, both for profit and not for profit, embrace to support unrestricted growth. That diffusion often results in corporate collapse. The ASK asks very important questions, but Freeman fails to come to any conclusion. He might owe his audience that, but the question retains its importance despite the author's waffle

Wonderful emotional, relevant, interesting rapport between two fabulous actors