Just in case you’re wondering about yesterday’s POTUS matinee at the Berkeley Rep, well aren’t you in luck.

First of all, I came in peace. More than that, in the spirit of generous and shared enjoyment. Because, Gentle Reader, it really was a delight to see the house full, the attendees eager, laughter bursting on all sides and, doubtless for most in attendance, not a dry seat in the house. And I did share in the laughter. Not as frequently as almost everyone else. But frequently enough.

Selina Fillinger’s play is most promising. And if it tackles material that is not exactly new, more power to her. It is actually quite ambitious to imagine the backstage realities of something like the Trump Administration. Which is, of course, rather a silly term. Nothing is, or was, or hopefully ever will be, like the Trump Administration. So it is downright daring to take on the machinations of the famously corrupt clown president. At least one congressional committee has already laid out the plot. So I give the playwright credit.

Broad. I had already warned Jane. I could see this was not going to be a subtle afternoon, not the sort of thing that a well educated middle-aged Briton would tend to enjoy. I wasn’t expecting much in the way of verbal wit. But having a mid-Atlantic sensibility myself, and living in a West Coast American city starving for good theater, I knew how to make the most of whatever it was.  And there were certain qualities of outrageousness that utterly delighted me. Such as all the action revolving around the POTUS President’s lesbian sister. Who is, by the way, having an affair with the White House Chief of Staff.

Of course, this over-the-top concept is a satisfying thing in itself. The sister is flamboyantly butch. And she has repeatedly been arrested for drug offenses. And is openly seeking a presidential pardon. And all of this skates pleasantly close to plausible reality. Until it begins to get a bit fatiguing. Slapstick has a way of doing that. Which is why it’s very difficult to pull off. And again, I wish the playwright every encouragement.

The other thing about slapstick Is that it is eternal. Physical humor has been around forever. It speaks to the basics of the human condition. And there’s nothing about current American politics that naturally blends. But still there’s something cathartic about imagining Trump in the inside workings of POTUS Land as a sort of clown show. Or Clown Car, the frequent characterization of our current GOP.

It’s just that there are some premises and ideas abroad in the land that get missed in this particular stage farce. Such as the grossly unequal distribution of wealth. And, actually, there is the stuff of farce there. We have a couple of American generations so accustomed to inequality that is probably difficult to see. I really think it takes an older person, someone who was reasonably conscious before about 1970. Someone who can recall the middle-class economy of the decades after World War II. But I digress.

Even if the political bite sort of misses, it’s great to see people laughing at the conditions of today. It’s healthy. It’s a relief.