The Totalitarians at Woolly Mammoth Theatre

The Totalitarians

Woolly Mammoth Theatre
641 D St NW Washington

Francine, the ambitious speechwriter for a rich housewife’s vanity campaign for public office, has stumbled upon pure gold: a perfectly patriotic slogan. So what if it’s totally meaningless? And so what if her doctor husband disapproves? With it Francine can turn the campaign around and make her unpredictable, gaffe-prone candidate electrifyingly powerful—and finally, just maybe, get herself out of Nebraska. Written by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb, author of “Boom”, this high-energy farce exposes just how vacuous and absurd our political language is. If you worship at the altar of Colbert, if you religiously watch The Daily Show, you won’t want to miss this.

Thru - Jun 29, 2014

Price: $50 - $87

Show Type: Drama

Running Time: 2hrs ;one intermission

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The Totalitarians Reviews

Average Rating based on 5 reviews

Highly Recommended
Recommended
Somewhat Recommended
Not Recommended

DCist - Recommended

"...These four separate power struggles come to a head in the surprisingly action-packed finale, which features even grander sets, costumes, and stakes. In sheer manic giddiness, the play abruptly departs from an otherwise almost-believable tale of lust for power in Nebraska. But perhaps The Totalitarians seems to exceed belief only because it's premiering on a non-election year. Will the play feel more believable in hindsight by 2016? You betcha."

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- Riley Croghan

Talkin Broadway - Highly Recommended

"...Washington is the ideal city for The Totalitarians, and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company is the perfect group to present Peter Sinn Nachtrieb's outrageous political farce. With a community where politics is both the major industry and a spectator sport, Woolly and director Robert O'Hara understand what buttons to push and how to skew the truth just a little bit past reality."

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- Susan Berlin

Washington City Paper - Recommended

"...The production seems almost too Max Headroom-y for its own good. Video designer Jared Mezzocchi has created townhouse-sized Townleys to project against Misha Kachman’s sleek, uncluttered set. For the finale, there’s a cutout of Nebraska’s capitol building, which looks even more phallic than it did already by virtue of being turned on its side and flown in horizontally from stage right. Penny, decked out in a military-style jacket and armband like Richard III or an even less popular, more enterprising murderous head of state, ascends a tall stepladder to address a rally, only to suffer a humiliation-via-sabotaged-teleprompter that’s straight of out Anchorman. But the stage picture screams The Totalitarians: Turn Off the Dark. Giant wang or no, that imposing set dampens the funny."

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- Chris Klimek

Washingtonian - Highly Recommended

"...Peter Sinn Nachtrieb’s bizarre, satirical and raucous play, making its world premiere at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, focuses on a frustrated speechwriter charged with trying to make a hapless political candidate electable. Penny Easter (Emily Townley) is brash, guffaw-prone, slightly dim, and wholly inexperienced, complete with bedazzled jeans and a husband she can’t seem to stop mentioning is homosexual. But put some silky, charged, and unconventional words from Francine (Dawn Ursula) in her mouth, and she’s electrifying. Maybe too electrifying. Are larger, more sinister forces at work, trying to get her elected? For much of the play, the audience isn’t totally sure, but that doesn’t stop Francine’s husband, Jeffrey (Sean Meehan), from going down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories, with a little help from an idealistic and charismatic patient of his named Ben (Nicholas Loumos)."

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- Missy Frederick

DCTheatreScene - Highly Recommended

Nobody in the world of Peter Sinn Nachtrieb’s The Totalitarians seems all that interested in little things like gender, race, sexuality, party affiliation or class. In Nachtrieb’s cynical world, the defining characteristic anyone seems to recognize in anyone else is whether not that person is useful in the eternal, myopic quest for power. Ethics, morals, laws, or the ability to competently govern aren’t given much consideration either.

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- Ryan Taylor

The Totalitarians at Woolly Mammoth Theatre