Tucked into his farm in Gettysburg, the former president Dwight D. Eisenhower is trying to decide if he should write a second book and whether anyone would want to read it. That’s where the one-man show Eisenhower: This Piece of Ground finds America’s 34th. Ike’s publisher has given him a tape recorder, hoping a monologue might translate into pages. But it’s a list of presidents ranked in order of greatness—in which Eisenhower finds himself at No. 22—that gets him talking about his Kansas childhood, his two terms in office, and what makes a “great” president. “I wanted to go back in our history and look at an individual who led with faith and optimism during a very crucial time,” says the playwright Richard Hellesen, who incorporates Eisenhower’s real words into the play. It returns to Theatre at St. Clement’s after a successful run this summer. Tony-winner John Rubinstein stars. —Jensen Davis