Coming to the Capital Fringe Festival: ‘The Pundit’ by John Feffer

Ambitious Washington pundit Peter Peters is an expert on everything, even things he’s never heard of. His slick media appearances put him on the fast track…until one of his interviews blows up in his face.

The Pundit, which will debut at the Capital Fringe Festival on July 13, follows Peter Peters on a busy day of back-to-back radio and TV interviews. During his first interview, he bluffs his way through a Q & A about a suicide bombing in a country he can’t even locate on the map. As a result, Peters is lured out of his political comfort zone and into an escalating series of showdowns with an international terrorist. The balance of power shifts back and forth from talking head to terrorist leading up to a final, terrifying climax.

After three one-man shows in the Capital Fringe Festival – Krapp’s Last PowerPoint, Edible Rex, and The Bird – I wanted to set myself a specific challenge: create a thriller in which the main character never moves from his chair.

In Washington, DC, after all, so much power and influence is wielded by people who sit in chairs – in the Oval Office, at the Supreme Court, as television anchors, and in the thousands of cubicles and offices throughout the federal bureaucracy. They make life and death decisions without ever getting up from their desks.

In The Pundit, Peter Peters occupies the hot seat for 75 minutes while negotiating CNN interviews, ordering around his intern, arguing with his wife about childcare, and trying to reach Henry Kissinger for advice on how to get a coveted administration position. Behind him, the interlocutors appear on screen and on the stage. And the world of terrorism that starts out so abstract and far away eventually closes in on the pundit as the consequences of his pronouncements literally hit home.

The Pundit, which runs approximately 75 minutes, is directed by Doug Krehbel, who directed Hapgood at the Silver Spring Stage & appeared as an actor locally, in The Real Inspector Hound at Metrostage & Cymbeline at the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company. In addition to me as Peter Peters, The Pundit also features Matthew Ancarrow, Sean Coe, Anthony Hacsi, Emily Morrison, Peter J. Orvetti, Sarah Daisy Splitt & Carol Spring. The video director is Maria Meriwether.

After making its international debut at the Capital Fringe Festival, The Pundit will open at the New York Fringe Festival in August.

More information about The Pundit can be found here.

The Pundit
Written by John Feffer

Peformances at Goethe Institut – Mainstage
812 7th Street NW
Washington, DC 20001

FR 7/13 9:15PM
SU 7/15 5:00PM
FR 7/20 6:00PM
SA 7/28 9:00PM
SU 7/29 1:00PM

Purchase tickets beginning June 18th here.

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