Capital Fringe: John Feffer’s The Politician

– by guest writer John Feffer –

Washington is well known for its revolving door. One day Dick Cheney is vice president. The next day he’s a talking head on a Sunday morning news show lobbing verbal grenades at the new president. Who knows: even at the age of 72, he might return to a government position as a czar of something or other.

Last year, I introduced Peter Peters to the Washington stage. Peters is the consummate pundit, someone who can sound authoritative on every possible subject, particularly the ones he knows nothing about.

In The Pundit, which was a sell-out hit in last year’s Capital Fringe Festival, Peter Peters was desperate to rise to the top of the short list for a job in the administration. He was eager to pass through Washington’s revolving door and come out the other side with more money and power than when he started.

But things didn’t quite work out the way that Peter Peters wanted, thanks to his overweening arrogance.

And now, just when you thought it was safe to dip your toe back into Washington politics, Peter Peters is back. We’ll be combining a restaged version of last year’s production with its gripping sequel to create…The Politician.

This time around, Peter Peters has achieved his heart’s desire. He has joined the administration and wields the power he always wanted. But it’s also an opportunity for him to learn that timeless lesson of politics and drama: be careful what you wish for because it might come true.

For everyone who saw The Pundit, this is a chance to find out what happened to Peter Peters, his family, and the international terrorist who disrupted their lives. For everyone else it’s an opportunity see a full-length exploration of Washington foibles. It’s a satire wrapped in a thriller folded inside an exposé of Washington power politics.

The Pundit received five stars from DC Theatre Scene reviewer Missy Frederick, who said that it’s “a work that starts as a pointed satire and evolves into a taut thriller.” “The Pundit delivers thought-provoking material in just the right dose,” raved NYTheater.com of last year’s production at the New York Fringe. “Deflates its target with a sharp satiric pin,” said The Washington Post.

The Politician is written by me and directed by Doug Krehbel (who also directed The Pundit and my one-man show The Bird). Sean Coe, who played the terrorist Ruslan X in last year’s production, returns as Peter Peters. He’s joined by Ethan Kitts, Michael Crowley, Morganne Davies, Lisa Hodsoll, Conor Scanlan, and Sarah Strasser.

This year I’m on a fellowship in Eastern Europe, retracing my steps from 1990 and re-interviewing all the people I talked to 23 years ago when the region was on the cusp of transformation. That’s why I won’t be appearing in The Politician, the first time in five years that I won’t be spending July on the stage. I look forward to sitting in the audience with everyone else and enjoying the show. And next year I’ll be back with a new one-man performance: 23 years, 250 people, and one amazing story.

More information about The Pundit can be found on its website and its Facebook page.

This production is presented as a part of the 2013 Capital Fringe Festival, a program of the Washington, DC non-profit Capital Fringe.

— John Feffer is on leave from his position as the co-director of Foreign Policy in Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies  in order to travel as an Open Society Fellow. He is the author of several books. This is his fifth Fringe play and the first in which he will not perform.  —

Part of Fringe Peeks, our “in their own words” series