By SHARON EBERSON
A dictator’s wife behaves like a spoiled child, oblivious to her people’s cries of anguish. What could possibly go wrong?
The First Lady of the USA premiere play First Lady is named Ishtar (borrowed from the infamous film flop, perchance?), a character as colorful as her ostentatious wardrobe, in a sort of melding of Imelda Marcos, Eva Peron and Maria Antoinette. If fictional Mesopotamia had a Real Housewives show, Ishtar could be the claws-out villain we love to hate.
In the middle of a crisis, when Ishtar hears that her cover shoot for a magazine has been canceled, she exclaims, “But I’m an icon!”
She’s played with ferocious arrogance by Pittsburgh International Classic Theatre artistic director Elizabeth Elias Huffman in the season-opening satirical romp, hilarious, with many a twist, in its portrayal of the inner workings of a dictatorship that’s about to crash and burn.
Ishtar initially presents as driven only by self-interests, while finding it hard to accept that the pesky hoards outside the summer palace are about to intrude on her vacation.
First Lady features four powerhouse performances on the intimate Carnegie Stage, directed by Adil Mansoor, who knows how to tickle audiences with the touch of an emblematic feathered boa on the one hand, and bring dramatic irony crashing down on the party with the other.
The play is written by French-Turkish playwright Sedef Ecer and translated by Amelia Parenteau, who are joining the PICT production in Carnegie for a dinner event on October 10, and a talkback at the closing performance on October 11.
In First Lady, we find Ishtar in a pickle not totally of her own making. She is about to be caught up in the uprising of her enslaved people, left behind by her corrupt, womanizing dictator of a husband. He and their grown children have fled the country, unbeknownst to Ishtar, who is more interested in her wardrobe and the advice of her fawning stylist, Gazal — Treasure Treasure, a flashy fashionista with a flair for elevating speeches from funny to hilarious.
The powers that be in the dictator’s absence have decided that a televised, carefully coordinated interview with the Queen Bee may temper the mob’s outrage, and a nervous young journalist, Yasmine (Milia Ayache), is brought to the palace for the task. While everyone else is abandoning ship, Elish (Doren Elias), the harried Chief of Staff, is tasked with making sure Yasmine does not stray from a prepared script, and to keep the First Lady as clueless as possible, while the crowd draws ever nearer.
Nothing goes as planned.
Through video communications, the quartet learn that they will likely have to fend for themselves, amping up the comedy and chaos as the threat draws ever nearer.
Each actor in First Lady is tasked with delivering monologues of notable length, at times in direct address, and each delivers with unrestrained emotion. As it begins to dawn on Huffman’s Ishtar that there may be no deliverance from the mob, she grows more and more agitated, and defiant.
While Elias’ Elish monitors their apparent doom, Treasure rants about her lot in life, while Yasmine remains mostly watchful, waiting to see how events play out.
The play goes on one, perhaps two endings too long, for my tastes, although staged brilliantly in the Carnegie theater, which has been stretched to its intimate limits while removing the side banks of seats.
Scenic designer Sasha Jin Schwartz has swathed the interview setting in banana yellow on yellow, while Huffman dons flowing outfits of unsubtle orange, yellow and pink. Fitted costumes by E.E. Huffman also pop on Treasure and Elias, while Ayache’s Plain Jane outfit perfectly suits her character. The multimedia design by Scott Andrews includes visual communications that are integral to the plot. The play opens with an onscreen meeting of presidential advisors — played by Art DeConciliis, Ricardo Vila-Roger and John Dolphin — setting in motion the events that follow.
Ecer’s timely play comes as thousands are marching in the streets of European cities, in protest of the war in Gaza, demanding change from their walled-in leaders.
In fictional Mesopotania, something akin to the Arab Spring uprisings of 15 years ago has reached a fever pitch, and the First Lady, however culpable, is the one left to face the consequences.
First Lady offers the possibility of deep belly laughs and deep thinking about the state of the world, both of which are much in demand on the current world stage.
TICKETS AND DETAILS
PICT’s USA premiere of First Lady is at Carnegie Stage, 25 West Main Street, Carnegie, through October 11, 2025. For tickets, including the Turkish/French Cultural Celebration on Tuesday, October 7, visit https://pictclassictheatre.ludus.com/index.php .
Categories: Arts and Ideas, Reviews
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