SPOILER ALERT
Modern Politics Creates Sizzling Satire in ‘The Totalitarians’
By ANNE SIEGEL
MILWAUKEE, WI – With the mid-term political elections just weeks away, one of Milwaukee’s newer theater companies uses that timing to open The Totalitarians, a 2015 political satire written by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb.
The play is simultaneously horrific and hilarious as it dissects the daily activities surrounding a political campaign gone amok. This campaign is set in Nebraska, a state that is soon to vote for a new lieutenant governor. The candidate in question is Penny, a former roller derby contestant with basically no idea of how to appeal to voters. She has big hair and a big mouth, and she longs for the attention an election race can bring. Penny’s political pedigree is questionable, however, and she is all too aware that some people view her as a curvaceous bimbo. Her taste in clothes is gaudier than her political handlers would wish.
Miraculously, into her life comes Francine, a young, aspiring political speechwriter who believes she has a winning strategy. Francine toils endlessly to craft speeches that will elicit “the greatest degree of trust” in Penny. While Penny delivers these speeches with gusto, they contain little more than vague promises and trite slogans. (**SPOILER ALERT** Read more)