In Karen Finley’s George & Martha, the playwright imagines Dubya canoodling with Martha Stewart; John Cameron Mitchell recently channeled Laura Bush at staged readings of Tony Kushner’s work-in-progress Only We Who Guard the Mystery Shall Be Unhappy; and in Paula Vogel’s The Oldest Profession, five aging whores lament the Reagan years. Similarly, Michael Frayn’s Democracy invokes the Clintonish leader of seventies West Germany, Willy Brandt. “He was a great man,” says Frayn, “but he had many genuine weaknesses”—including one our current president lacks. “He was what Germans call conflict-shy.”
George & Martha, Collective: Unconscious; opens September 17.
Only We Who Guard … ; TBA.
The Oldest Profession, Peter Norton Space; TBA.
Democracy, Brooks Atkinson Theatre; opens November 18.