John Strand

The "Originalist" is a 2015 play depicting what it might have been like if former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia had hired a gay, black, liberal, female to be one of his law clerks. This audiobook is a full cast theater recording of the play performed at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C.

In the play, the very conservative Scalia and his newly hired very liberal law clerk often go head-to-head, matching wits while debating their respective points of view on their opposite political perspectives. While the law clerk is a fictional character, and therefore so is the dialogue between the two, actual court cases referred to are real, and the back and forth banter between the two, and the passion apparent in their positions, ring true.

Initially, it appears the working relationship between the two will never work out. However, they seem to enjoy their exchanges, and while neither makes a convert of the other to their respective viewpoints, there is some softening in their hearts and a growing respect for the other as the play progresses.

The play certainly gives the listener some insights into Scalia as a person and as a Justice of the Supreme Court, and brings an understanding of how it was possible for the most Conservative Judge on the Court to be such close friends with the most liberal Judge on the Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in real life.

I found the play (and the audiobook recording of it) to be enjoyable, enlightening, and entertaining, and if the play gets resurrected in a theater near me, I'd be sure to see it.
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