By Kelly Oristano

“We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as a civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.”  — Thomas Jefferson

“Political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissenger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.” — Tom Lehrer

The Taming, written by Lauren Gunderson, directed by Maggie Hadley, and onstage now at Actors Cabaret, is a play about contemporary American politics and feminism from 2013.

As of January 2025, that makes it a play about a country that no longer exists. The women of The Taming hope to refine or redraft the Constitution to better suit modern life; we wake up every morning and learn which parts of the Constitution became inoperative overnight.

They trade witty barbs with relish as equal custodians of their shared nation and call each other “Red State” and “Blue State”; we are afraid to talk to new people beyond pleasantries for fear that we might be talking to Red Hats. Their politics makes them literally strange bedfellows; we mobilize in a desperate and uphill effort to allow queer people, immigrants, Palestinians and others the freedom of expression granted them by the First Amendment and not to become victims of the fascist autocrat whose very existence made this play a complex and challenging watch when it should have been a light and inspiring one.

But let’s talk about this very good play and its wonderful production with three excellent performances at ACE. Autocratic fascism probably won’t rear its bronzered head again. Gunderson’s play opens with Bianca, a liberal “influencer” activist, and Patricia, an overworked aide to a Republican senator, finding themselves trapped in a hotel room at a beauty pageant with doors locked, phones confiscated, and not enough pants to go around.

For a time each blames the other for their shared plight, and the prickly political character assassinations start flying around the room.

Before long, their actual tormentor reveals themselves. Katherine, Miss Georgia, has taken them captive precisely for their political opposition. But not for cruelty nor her own enjoyment: “Why, why, why would Miss Georgia roofie a republican aide and a liberal influencer on the eve of the Miss America competition? She must have a reason. It must be exciting. I do and it is,”  Katherine says as she reveals her true plan.

As a devotee of James Madison, Katherine believes the U.S. Constitution has raveled sleeves and no longer fits the body of our grownup nation. She wants Bianca and Patricia to devise a new Constitution, which she will then present as her talent in the competition. (No one said it was a brilliant plan, just a plan.)

From here the political infighting takes a bit more direction, and Gunderson’s project turns to having these three smart women do a funny and engaging thought experiment about what a new Constitution could mean if designed by contemporary stakeholders. This is not a new idea — even Jefferson didn’t imagine the 1789 Constitution remaining in effect for two centuries.

The whys and wherefores of this debate in the play are a bit simple and, given what we face today, rather quaint. It’s nice even today to see three characters who care so much about their country that they would be willing to take drastic measures to bring it closer to its true self-concept.

But the simplicity of the debate gives the lie to the feasibility of the project. No Republican could say, as Patricia does, that the new constitution should “let queer people keep their rights.” It was aspirational for 2013, but in 2025 it would mean excommunication from the party.

No liberal influencer has gone all out for a single tiny species as Bianca does since the last decade of the 20th Century. Problems now are too big and scary for progressives to afford the luxury of our beloved pedantry. For all the fun that The Taming provides, its characters are people who no longer exist in “official politics,” and if they exist as citizens, then it is time for them to get louder.

Apparently fascism did poke its nose in again. It’ll do that. Apologies. It’s a very funny play and “We the Audience” laughed a ton on opening night. What it is not is escapism, because every three minutes something happens that makes one realize how insanely much has changed in the last American decade.

Hadley’s cast are expert performers, each well-suited to their role. Three delightfully talented actors with strong unique voices make this production a joy to take in. Kudos to ACE for reviving their old practice of including some straight plays among the musicals. It’s a wonderful space for a thoughtful small-scale comedy like this to find an appreciative audience. Hadley’s staging allows the actors freedom to move around the small stage enough to tell the story, and incorporates doors, bed, and desks into many of the gags.

As the Republican Patricia, Melanie Moser is assured and composed and fully in her power, right up until she is hilariously not. Moser shows many colors as Patricia. We see her at her highest and lowest, her angriest and her most fruitfully creative. Moser provides the energy and urgency that keeps the play moving forward and it does — relentlessly — the entire time she is on stage.

Martha Benson is bright and bold as the progressive influencer Bianca. Benson understood the assignment, her Bianca is a well-developed, real person whose strident moralism can be both inspiring and insipid. The play tries hard to balance a respect for Bianca’s goals with a healthy helping of mockery of her methods. Benson is brilliantly keen at finding these moments on all sides of Bianca.

Katherine, the pageant queen and James Madison fangirl, is brought to larger-than-life by Liv Tavernier. Supremely funny and endearing, Tavernier’s Katherine is both a wide-eyed innocent and a devious criminal mastermind, often in the same breath. She brings a madcap, screwball comedy pitch to Katherine that is perfect for the character and the story and was fun to watch even with the Cassandra-like knowledge that Katherine’s dream was just a year or three from crashing into our present reality.

A complex and challenging watch can also be a rewarding watch, and that’s certainly the case here. ACE and Hadley cannot have known when putting this piece on the calendar what the ground state of politics would be on opening night, and like the rest of us they caught a worst-case scenario and rolled with it admirably. The play remains hilarious and smart, and the performances could land among the best on local stages this year. Your reviewer wants you to know what you are getting into, but do get into it. Then get out there and get in some good trouble of which Miss Georgia would approve.