This is Government – 09 September 2025

An anxious intern who wants to work in politics, a laid-back intern who just wants to get famous, and their less-than-fun director walk into a day of answering phones for Congressman Bachman’s office and the bomb threat just outside prevents them from leaving. Quite beknownst to them, the bomb threat is the office’s most frequent disgruntled caller whose mental health is questionable at best. The interns struggle to figure out why this caller, who they speak to every single day, wants to hurt people and, in the process, discover that the world is more complex than they thought— namely that likable people can still be responsible for bad things. This is government.

The caller, Stevie (Susan Lynskey) turns out to have a very linear reason for threatening the congressman and, inadvertently, her beloved “phone people.” Two years prior, Congressman Bachman closed the hospital closest to her. As a result, Stevie’s daughter died in a car crash on the way to the closest open hospital, which was much further away. Now, Stevie has been unable to reach the congressman directly by phone, and has increased the frequency of her calling as the congressman prepares to vote on a bill that might reopen the hospital and prevent other fatalities like her daughter’s. It takes a lot of words to explain, but it’s actually very straightforward. This is Government does a really great job of humanizing Stevie as the constituent whose voice couldn’t be heard rather than the crazy person with a fake car bomb. Really, the greatest strength of This is Government is that each character goes from a semi-annoying caricature to someone the audience cares about deeply. I felt very invested in everyone’s stories, and the way that their progression kept creating interesting side bars which  infused laughter into a stressful topic. The play was high quality entertainment in addition to doing important work.

Lighting and sound were utilitarian, and it was refreshing to see a piece that mostly stood on the actors alone. Each character had a performative element to how they were written that got stripped away to reveal them each as equally human, akin to each other. Emi (Kleo Mitrokostas) exuded confidence, but underneath was searching for a sense of purpose beyond following a path from college to internship. Tip (Charles Hsu) comes off as what I, as a queer person, can only call obnoxiously queer, yet underneath the exuberance is deep insecurity and crushing self doubt. Kaz (Van Dukes) comes off as a strong and responsible rule-follower, but secretly harbors a desire for recognition, possibly because of a lack of acceptance of their gender identity. In other words, everyone is masking their insecurities. It’s exactly what one would expect of a congressional intern office. These are the types of people who seem to surround actual politicians, but not become one.

The final scene was the most touching. Each character decided to visit Stevie’s grave, independent of each other. Their chance meeting insured the continuation of a bond that might otherwise have faded with time, the way internships become a memory once one has a job. In the wake of Stevie’s passing, they have each reflected and changed the path of their life. Even though Stevie failed to convince Congressman Bachman to vote in favor of the bill, her actions put three people on new paths to change the world for the better This is Government brilliantly reminds us that we’re all human. We all have choices. When something bad happens, we can choose to let it change us for the better.

I attended this performance on a press pass from Berlin Rosen.