In the West Coast premiere comedy “This is Government” at Moxie Theatre, lead character Tip declares his internship at a Congressional office is 90% to gain fodder for his performance art and 10% to someday get elected.
Those are his only two options: Change the world through art or political power. But like many ambitious young people, one traumatic day will change him, not the other way around.
Playwright Nina Kissinger wrote the dark comedy during her senior year in college, based upon her own experience interning in Congress in the summer of 2021, and yes, the internship informed her art.
She described the internship as a “wacky” time to be on the Hill, amid COVID-19 protocols and political polarization. Security lockdowns were common, with senior staffers blasé about threats after surviving Jan. 6.
“It was (a) very divisive, strange time to be there,” Kissinger said in an interview after the show.
Some of that strangeness is depicted in “This is Government,” which follows three Gen Z staffers trapped for hours in lockdown due to a bomb threat. Their absent boss, a moderate representative who holds up votes to posture, goes home for the night ahead of casting the deciding vote on a major healthcare bill. That leaves the two interns and their manager to unravel the mystery of the bomber— and how their boss will vote.
It’s a dark premise for a piece that elicited more laughter than any other emotion, although Kissinger does hit other beats. Leading with laughter, especially in the beginning, was intentional.
“I want to go to the theater to feel something, and to feel like something is at least trying to speak to the moment, whether it will or not— and also to have a laugh,” she said.
The play has sitcom elements, a la “Parks & Rec,” with quick dialogue and an apolitical view of government, as well as a warm view of humanity.
That empathetic lens matters most in the treatment of Stevie (Katie MacNichol), an older constituent who frequently calls the congressional office to try to speak to her feckless congressman, but always ends up chatting with the 21-year-old manning the phone.
While interning, Kissinger frequently answered the phones. Other interns even foisted those duties on her.
“It was my favorite part of the job, and it was definitely not supposed to be my favorite part of that job,” she said.
It also led to strange social connections with people calling to get their representative to vote one way or another.
“In the days and weeks after… People who said some crazy things to me that I wouldn’t agree with, and I’d be walking around being like ‘I wonder, did Marie go to her nephew’s wedding?’” she said. “I talked to them more than anyone in my life that summer.”
She still wrestles with whether someone’s political views define who they are, something that comes up in the play as nonbinary supervisor Kaz (Kailey Madoka Agpaoa) has a harsher outlook on disagreeable constituents, informed by their own experiences of discrimination.
The funniest intern, Tip, a young gay man (Ben McClaren), meanwhile, is willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, no matter how violent their statements. Emi (Becca Myers), is too anxious about disappointing her father, whose fraternity brotherhood with the representative got her this internship, to care about this ethical quandary.
The setting of the play feels of the moment, even as moderate swing voters in Congress have lost power in the last few years. That is aided by Kissinger’s choice never to name parties, so the Gen Z slang will go out of date faster than the political machinations.
Its best moments are fast-moving conversations in the office, although Stevie’s monologues via voice mail elevated the piece from workplace comedy to moving exploration of humanity.
Director Desireé Clarke Miller, who is also the executive artistic director of Moxie, added humorous scene breaks showing the passage of time in silent action sequences at high speed.
The play is over 90 minutes with no intermission. As the script is refined, 10 minutes could stand to be cut from the three office workers trying to solve the mystery of the bomb threat, which seemed all too obvious despite their lengthy dithering.
While the mystery is solved, whether someone’s politics define them remains ambiguous.
“Is there a gray area there or is there not? And I think it’s a question this play really wrestles with, and one I still haven’t answered personally,” Kissinger said.
“This is Government,” at Moxie Theatre (6663 El Cajon Blvd. Suite N) through Oct. 25. Find tickets at moxietheatre.com.
