In ‘The Ask’, the deepest divide is not between left and right, but within the left itself.
I come to the play with the credentials of what George Bush might have called “a card-carrying member of the ACLU”: civil rights marches, antiwar demonstrations, the outskirts of Stonewall, and the fight for women’s rights. That history makes Matthew Freeman’s sharply observed clash between longtime activists and a new generation within the ACLU feel especially urgent—and uncomfortably familiar.
Freeman has written more than 30 plays, staged at independent venues including St. Mark’s Church, The Access, and The Brick Theater, as well as internationally in London, New Zealand, and Ukraine. Drawing on his own experience as an ACLU fundraiser, he uses The Ask to examine two starkly different visions of the organization’s mission—and, more broadly, of social justice.
The Ask brings together Greta, a longtime ACLU donor on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, and Tanner, a young ACLU representative sent to secure a substantial contribution. At first, they appear united by progressive values. Their conversation, however, reveals a widening generational and ideological rift. Greta believes the ACLU’s central purpose is to defend constitutional rights and worries that its expanding agenda has diluted that mission. Tanner argues that concerns such as high-speed internet access and student-debt relief extend rights to more people. Greta sees those positions as partisan distractions that weaken the organization’s credibility. Money ultimately settles the argument: Greta’s $500,000 donation gives her the leverage to insist that the ACLU prioritize the First Amendment and reproductive rights. She even pressures Tanner to abandon the phrase “pregnant people” in favor of “pregnant women.” By the end, it is clear that Greta’s wealth allows her to influence the course the organization will take.
Photo Credit: Joan Marcus
Marilu Henner brings Greta vividly to life. An actress, singer, author, and producer, Henner began her career in the original 1971 production of Grease and made her film debut in 1977’s Between the Lines. She later earned five Golden Globe nominations for playing Elaine O’Connor Nardo on Taxi. Henner is ideally cast, giving Greta both humor and humanity. As Tanner, Shannon Purser—an Emmy nominee for her debut as Barb Holland in Stranger Things—proves an equally strong and sympathetic presence. Together, the two actors keep an ideological argument grounded in recognizable human emotion.
The Ask unfolds entirely in Greta’s Upper West Side apartment, yet its concerns reach far beyond that room. In 80 witty, tightly paced minutes, Freeman captures a defining conflict on today’s left: whether progress means defending a durable set of principles or continually expanding the meaning of rights. Early in the play, Greta points to a picture of a Brontosaurus; later, Tanner notes that the dinosaur is now called an Apatosaurus. The image cuts both ways. Greta may be a political dinosaur, but a new name does not necessarily create a new creature. Freeman leaves us with a provocative question: Have the ACLU’s aims truly changed, or has its enduring pursuit of equality simply acquired a new vocabulary?
