“Man of the People,” an original play by Dolores Diaz, tells the incredible but true story of a 1920s medical charlatan, Dr. John Romulus Brinkley, who garnered a large following with a popular medical advice radio program.
He then scammed thousands of his devoted listeners into buying useless tonics, some of it merely colored water. And at his clinic he would perform dangerous surgeries, implanting goat testicles into men’s scrotums, intended to restore virility, but often killing or maiming patients instead.
Produced by Stage Left Theatre and running through November 20 at the Chicago Dramatists, “Man of the People” recounts Brinkley’s seemingly unstoppable rise to fame and fortune, despite the best efforts by the American Medical Association, the Federal Communications Commission, the Food & Drug Administration, and local government regulators. Even the U.S. Congress investigated Brinkley, and Michael Peters is stunning in the role of this antihero who simply relocated and adapted to each restriction, eventually circumventing the FCC by broadcasting from Mexico.
Playwright Diaz, whose most recent credit was “Zulema” at the Goodman in 2021, wraps the story in a tale of the real-life crusading investigative reporter, Chicago’s Dr. Morris Fishbein (Andrew Bosworth gives a knock-out performance), who as editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association outs Brinkley’s chicanery. But no blow was decisive enough to stop the quackery.
In “Man of the People,” Diaz poses a question: Why did people believe Brinkley, even after a series of revelations made public his chicanery?
The question resonates in our world of political demagogues and podcasters cashing in on conspiracy theories and patently false information on subjects ranging from mass shootings, to COVID vaccinations, and even election results. And it seems no matter how demonstrably wrong are the falsehoods, the fans and followers cannot be convinced.
The answer Diaz offers is that, in the case of Brinkley anyway, people were attracted to the hope he offered, a possibility that they could be cured from maladies for which there was no remedy. Clearly “Don’t confuse me with the facts” is a constant in the human condition.
The script wraps the factual saga of Brinkley’s rise and fall with parallel tales: Brinkley’s relationship with his partner in crime and common law wife Minnie (played by Joan Nahid), and Fishbein’s relationship with his AMA research partner Maxwell (played by Shawn Smith) who did the spadework to prove Brinkley’s fraud. Even Fishbein’s mother Fanny (Sandy Spaz) was seduced by Brinkley’s appeal despite her own son’s credentials as an M.D. who persistently discourages her.
While the script is a little uneven, dwelling too long on some areas, and needing a bit more emphasis on the motivation behind the characters, the story is so compelling, I highly recommend this production. The cast is uniformly good, and Smith and Bosworth give highly energized performances. See "Man of the People" through November 20 at the Chicago Dramatists,
