Rising playwright Sarah Burgess takes deadly aim at the political strings pulled by big-money-powered PACs in Kings, a South Coast Repertory West Coast Premiere as entertaining as it is riveting as it is cynical about the state of our nation.

 Meet Washington D.C. influence peddlers Kate (Jules Willcox) and Lauren (Paige Lindsey White), romantic exes whose latest target, recently elected Texas Representative Sydney Millsap (Tracey A. Leigh), is not only the Gold Star Widow of an Iraq War casualty but the first woman and the first person of color ever to represent her district.

Burgess makes it clear from the get-go that no matter how noble a lobbyist’s claims for the bill she is promoting might be (Kate says hers will reduce the opioid crisis, Lauren insists that hers will encourage investment. and both seem absolutely convinced of what they’re saying), self-interest is what it’s all about, whether that of podiatrists or of investment fund managers or of anyone else engaging in what Sydney sees as brazen deception.

Indeed, it would seem that Kate and Lauren have finally met their match in a woman willing to call them on their flim-flam, even if it means jeopardizing a reelection campaign she is determined to win.

 Completing King’s cast of characters is Senator John McDowell (Richard Doyle), a veteran Texas politico who’d have no problem supporting Sydney’s bid for a second term in office if only she were anything like the politicians he’s has been dealing with during his decades in D.C.

Unfortunately for the fledgling rep, by opposing the venerable Senator in a recent vote, one that would have further padded bank accounts already full to bursting, Sydney has made herself one powerful enemy, and should McDowell make good on his threat to support her opponent in the upcoming primary, Representative Millsap’s first term in office will likely be her last.

What Senator McDowell has not counted on is the decision Sydney makes, one that could put his own future in as much jeopardy as her own.

Let the games begin.

 Any playwright who attempts a political play in 2018 faces one significant obstacle, getting an audience interested in a fictitious reality when our current nightmare makes any imagined alternate universe seem somehow irrelevant by comparison.

 Kings avoids this potential pitfall by focusing, not on a cast of made-up politicians, but on those who collude with them to dupe the public and make it nigh on impossible for any elected official to follow his or her convictions, let alone get elected in the first place.

And playwright Burgess has clearly done her research. (The next time you hear a politician say, “I can’t support this bill because it doesn’t go far enough,” you’ll know why.)

 Add to that a quartet of sharply written characters, a plotline that has enough unexpected twists and turns to keep an audience on the edge of their seats, and razor-sharp performances under Dámaso Rodriguez’s electric direction, and you’ve got a production that will put a damper on any idealistic notions you might go in with but keeps you entertained every step along the way.

Leigh, Willcox, and White, three of SoCal’s finest stage actresses prove just how versatile they are, vanishing into characters unlike any I’ve seen them play, and South Coast Rep treasure Doyle is such a dead ringer for this long-term senator or that, you’d swear he’d been flown in from D.C.

Efren Delgadillo Jr.’s striking scenic design morphs seamlessly from ski resort bar to Capitol Hill row house to a Houston Chilis, and Leah Piehl’s character-defining costumes, Peter Maradudin’s vibrant lighting, and Cricket S. Myers’ electrifying sound design are just as fine.

Jenny Jacobs is stage manager and Amy Rowell is assistant stage manager. Holly Ahlborn and Joshua Marchesi are production managers. Andy Knight is dramaturg. Nike Doukas is dialect coach. Casting is by Joanne Denaut, CSA.

Though about as far from a feel-good play as any I could imagine, this doesn’t make Kings any less worth seeing. If it were a book, you’d call it a political page-turner par excellence. I for one couldn’t put it down.

South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa.
www.scr.org

–Steven Stanley
October 23, 2018
Photos: Debora Robinson/SCR

Tags: Orange County Theater Review, Sarah Burgess, South Coast Repertory