David Mamet’s 2008
farce tracks the election
machinations of an incumbent president who, in his dimness and oblivious moral pliancy, is clearly modeled on Dubya, but now serves to represent a whole class of terrifying would-be presidents hovering on the horizon. Mamet’s play is fast, smart, and a little glib—but surprising—and here built around a dazzlingly accomplished lead performance by Seattle’s Seanjohn Walsh. (New City Theater, 1404 18th Ave, 800-838-3006, 7:30 pm, $15 adv/$20 DOS)

David Schmader—former weed columnist and Stranger associate editor—is the author of the solo plays Straight and Letter to Axl, which he’s performed in Seattle and across the US. His latest...