This article appeared in the Dec. 18, 2004 Jewish Advocate.

Taking it Off the Streets:

Zinman and MacKinnon’s brand of holiday theater

By Susie Davidson

Advocate Correspondent

“I still remember Ian MacKinnon's first lines as George Bush in our first performance in Harvard Square,” says Eric Zinman. “’I've alerted Congress and we're going to be shutting down Au Bon Pain. We suspect there is C14 in the baguettes.’ Someone in the crowd yelled, ‘but it’s not a French company!’ And 'Bush' said back, ‘but they sound French, so we're investigating, and then defending the ransacking of the Iraqi Museum.’”

This prescient skit occurred in 2002, before the current Iraqi war. Media coverage at the time, which they perceived as limited and biased, so incensed pianist and composer, teacher, and orchestra leader Zinman and theatrical producer, playwright, musician and actor MacKinnon that the two picked up a lectern and began play-acting Bush and Cheney. They began on Boston Common before migrating to Au Bon Pain, all the while polishing the act. This Sunday evening at 9:30, the two will present “A Bush-Cheney Christmas” at the Zeitgeist Gallery in Inman Square.

Zinman’s ties to the gallery stem from the launching of his “Playground” music series in 1995, a year after the birth of the popular Cambridge center for experimental music, performance art, radio broadcasting and other artistic mayhem loosely headed by veteran local event producers Alan Nidle and Rob Chalfen.

MacKinnon, who is married to Rebecca Ostriker, a Boston Globe copy editor and daughter of Distinguished Visiting Professor of Women’s Studies at Brandeis University and renowned poet and Midrashist Alicia Ostriker, produced “The Awannoa Show” last year at the venue. In the play, the turmoil of 17^th-century New England was seen through the viewpoint of early Puritans, who were more engaged with the Old Testament than the New. “They looked to its text for their sense of authenticity and justification,” recalled Rebecca Ostriker. “They linked their experience to that of the Jews, seeing themselves as leaving behind tyranny, entering the wilderness, and seizing the promised land.” “Awannoa” included a deathbed scene where a Puritan settler made his son promise to learn Hebrew. “In a way, the play is a kind of Midrash on American history,” she said.

The new production’s historical significance is no less consequential, according to Zinman. “The issues that Ian and I will be dealing with go beyond ethnic background and affect all of us,” he said. “These include the systematic erosion of our civil rights, the enormous cost of war in lives and resources, our negative image abroad cultivated through a series of wars which further isolate us as a nation while stirring up greater hatred of America, and the current administration’s treatment of the environment.” At the show, Faith-Based Songs will be led by the President with Cheney on piano, covering issues such as Jews getting into heaven; segments will include a “Jogging Bible Study with Pretzels,” a “Satellite link-up to U.S.O. show for Our Troops in Iraq,” and other scenarios.

Newton native Zinman attended Temple Israel and sang in choirs throughout his childhood. “Jewish choirs generally only exist in reform temples,” he noted. He also sang in Weber's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and other musicals, and sang background vocals on the Safam Record “Dreams of Safam,” which was directed by Robbi Solomon (now Cantor at Temple Ohabai Shalom). Once a hardcore Zionist, he now supports the Israeli/Palestinian peace movement. “Many Jews have no idea that a Palestinian peace movement exists as well,” he said.

Zinman composed music for MacKinnon’s musical “Dionysus in Cambridge,” using graphical scores and verbal directives. “I also played the role of Dr. Sydney Gottlieb in Ian’s play 'MK Ultra,' a parody of the CIA's mind control experiments on the population,” he said.

“Unlike oil, art is a renewable resource,” he added. “You can take a work, go down to the Copy Cop and make a copy, but you definitely can't do that with oil!"

A Bush-Cheney Anti-Christmas, with Ian Maxwell MacKinnon and Eric Zinman, will be presented Sunday, Dec. 21 9:30 p.m.-midnight at the Zeitgeist Gallery, 1353 Cambridge St., Inman Sq., Cambridge. Donation is $8. For information, call 617-876-6060, visit www.ericzinman.com or www.zeitgeist-gallery.org.