The Fourth Wall

Peggy, a modern woman with slightly leftist leanings, thinks someone is watching through The Fourth Wall of her living room and that it’s connected to President George W. Bush and the right wing of the Republican Party. She has rearranged all of the furniture so everyone beyond The Fourth Wall can see clearly. Her husband Roger and Julia, her best friend from New York City, think she’s having some sort of theatrical crisis and needs a plot. Roger has called in the drama professor from the local community college. But Peggy has been harassed on the streets and warned to “Redecorate or die,” and she just got a threatening phone call from the President’s mother telling her to rearrange her furniture. Thank heavens there’s nothing wrong that a Cole Porter song can’t cure.

The political focus has been sharpened in A.R. Gurney’s recently revised version of The Fourth Wall, directed by Stan Roth.