Mentally Prepare for the DNC with Political Theater

Actual political theater, as in plays about politics, plus a show about getting stoned.

Russ Widdall is Robert Kennedy in New City Stage Company's Roseburg. Photo by Alex Lowy

Russ Widdall is Robert Kennedy in New City Stage Company’s Roseburg. Photo by Alex Lowy

The Trump Card @ FringeArts | Thursday, July 21
Mike Daisey, called “the master storyteller” by the New York Times, performs his monologue about the embarrassment that is Donald Trump for the second time at FringeArts. Unlike Melania’s convention speech, Daisey’s words aren’t cribbed.

Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope @ New Freedom Theatre | July 21-30
This 1970s musical covering “ghetto life, student protests and feminism” — more about community than politics, if you can separate the two — was the first play on Broadway directed by an African-American woman. It gets a new setting in New Freedom Theatre’s version: North Broad Street, right across from the theater, where Temple University is building an athletic field on the former site of a high school. Not everyone in the community is happy about the development — both in the play and in real life.

Roseburg @ Adrienne Theater | Through July 31
New City Stage Company tackles gun control with this new play from Ginger Dayle juxtaposing a speech Robert Kennedy gave shortly before he was assassinated in 1968 and a community college shooting last year, both in Roseburg, Oregon.

Weeding Out the Stoned @ PhilaMOCA | Wednesday, July 20
Good Good Comedy is celebrating the Weeding Out the Stoned interactive comedy show’s one-year anniversary with 15 stoned comics and one abstemious fellow (or lady). It’s up to host Alex Grubard, with help from the audience, to figure out who’s the lone sober wolf. I would have questioned whether this is funny if you’re not high, but to be fair it has been going strong for a full year already.

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