State of the Union

A Comedy of Power & Other
Bad Decisions

An impulsive American President creates his most impossible scandal yet. Will his longtime fixer finally decide to let him own it?

NEW PLAY | IN DEVELOPMENT

STATE OF THE UNION is a Molière-inflected political farce about Shelley Stern, the longtime fixer for a shameless American President who has finally created a crisis even she may not be able to contain.

Facing a federal investigation, the President learns that his adult daughter, Bianca, has been subpoenaed to testify. Then, during a live address, a marital spat explodes into public spectacle: he divorces the First Lady and proposes to Bianca, convinced marriage could protect them both.

As Washington and the White House machinery contort themselves to make the indefensible seem reasonable, Shelley races to stop the wedding. Her efforts uncover a family secret that removes one obstacle to the marriage—and forces her to confront the role she has played in enabling the man she thought she was controlling.

By the time the wedding arrives, the entire apparatus of power has bent itself around the President’s latest demand. Shelley must finally decide whether loyalty means saving him one more time—or stepping aside and letting him discover what happens when nobody does.