CHARACTER SKETCH DETAIL

42, clear-eyed, centered, patient, nurturing mother, wife, activist and artist. 

Calm on the surface, roiled inside by her intuitive sense of the coming storm, Harriet “Riette” Kahn readies and commands the barricades against all-out assaults on her family’s privacy, safety, and unity. Riette has come to love and fear her husband Albert’s streaky, principled obsessiveness, and she recognizes the particular danger Harvey Matusow - with his insatiable vanity - poses when paired with Albert’s messianic drive to find and expose “the truth.”

What does Riette believe? That love conquers all. Through her eyes, the age of McCarthy has leeched compassion and understanding out of the American spirit; it’s this deficit which now allows the country to tear itself apart. To meet such a destructive force — and to mend the debris — with your heart outstretched is no easy task. And though Riette is a master of love in its many forms, she will be tested to discover new ones if she hopes to escape these trials with her heart intact, along with those of her husband, sons, and the people she cares for.

The love required for a husband like Albert is the most complex of all. There’s always been a quiet harmony in their shared humanism, and a rising thrill in standing shoulder to shoulder with him in the trenches of battle. But Riette also fears the point at which Albert’s fight for the love humanity is overtaken by his love for the fight. She must balance raising her sons in a cause-driven life and protecting them from fallout when the cause demands full sacrifice. And when Albert pushes the family past this line, she pushes back, with the toughest of love. Keeping the family together is a most delicate and difficult charge, and though she must often make it up as she goes, Riette knows that she alone can ensure their survival.

Riette soon realizes that she also has her own role to play in cracking the con man and helping to secure the confession Albert so desperately seeks. She has the clear eyes of a mother and sees Harvey for what he really is: a lost boy playing the dangerous games of men. She is quickly wary of his fickle nature and weary of his buffoonery, but instinctively, Riette knows the importance of greeting Harvey with the kind of acceptance, understanding, and tolerance that only a mother can provide. It is with the help of this love that Riette hopes the day will be won.

BIO NOTES

Born into a wealthy Detroit family, Riette spurned her upbringing and her parents’ wishes by marrying Albert Kahn. Despite the fact that he was from one of the most prominent Detroit families, Riette’s parents judged him as unseemly due to his being Jewish and an outspoken liberal.  She was disowned by much of her family for such a perceived transgression. Undeterred, she set out to make her own way with her new husband.

Riette’s political awakening is traced to her experiences leading a train of ambulances across the impoverished American west in 1937, fundraising for medical supplies in support of Spanish loyalists fighting against the forces of Franco’s fascist regime. As a result of witnessing the inspiring generosity and earnest principles of countless destitute Americans, Riette became an ardent believer in the power of community and a shared sense of duty to humanity.

A talented artist, writer and dedicated activist for progressive causes, Riette served as Albert’s editor and anchor during the early years of his publishing success.  At the opening of FOOL THEM ONCE, she is the principle caregiver to her three sons Steven (13), Tim (10) and Brian (7).