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The First Lady" Opens This Evening at PICT Theatre in Carnegie.

    


This evening at 7:30, PICT Theater will open its 2025-26 season with a U.S. premiere of a work by Turkish/French playwright, Sedef Ecer. “First Lady” is a comic satire with a serious and solemn message about the unraveling of an unspecified autocratic state located somewhere in Mesopotamia.

Artistic director Elizabeth Elias Huffman takes on the role of the unwitting First Lady, cocooned in her summer palace as all hell is breaking out in rebellion and insurgence against an autocratic regime. To quell the revolt, state ministers, in a state of desperation, plan to have the First Lady speak to the populace on a live impromptu TV broadcast to mollify the citizenry.

More attuned to wearing expensive attire created in part by her flamboyant trans designer, Gazal, than politicking on the airwaves, things go comedically wrong for the hapless woman, encouraged and manipulated by her Machiavellian advisor and protector, Elis, in her televised interview with young, naïve and inexperienced journalist, Yasmine.

At once hilarious yet cautionary and advisory in its behind-the-scenes look at the machinations of a corrupt regime, the play is both a fable as well as a realistic and timely look at events taking place over the globe in which political forces try to undermine established democracies.

Enhanced by high tech elements that include some lighting virtuosity and recorded video imagery, the play pulsates with a vibrant energy and poignant insights that resonates with the current political landscape both at home and abroad.

The play runs at the Carnegie Stage in Carnegie through October 11. Tickets are available at https://pictclassictheatre.ludus.com/index.php.

This evening at 7:30, PICT Theater will open its 2025-26 season with a U.S. premiere of a work by Turkish/French playwright, Sedef Ecer. “First Lady” is a comic satire with a serious and solemn message about the unraveling of an unspecified autocratic state located somewhere in Mesopotamia.

Artistic director Elizabeth Elias Huffman takes on the role of the unwitting First Lady, cocooned in her summer palace as all hell is breaking out in rebellion and insurgence against an autocratic regime. To quell the revolt, state ministers, in a state of desperation, plan to have the First Lady speak to the populace on a live impromptu TV broadcast to mollify the citizenry.

More attuned to wearing expensive attire created in part by her flamboyant trans designer, Gazal, than politicking on the airwaves, things go comedically wrong for the hapless woman, encouraged and manipulated by her Machiavellian advisor and protector, Elis, in her televised interview with young, naïve and inexperienced journalist, Yasmine.

At once hilarious yet cautionary and advisory in its behind-the-scenes look at the machinations of a corrupt regime, the play is both a fable as well as a realistic and timely look at events taking place over the globe in which political forces try to undermine established democracies.

Enhanced by high tech elements that include some lighting virtuosity and recorded video imagery, the play pulsates with a vibrant energy and poignant insights that resonates with the current political landscape both at home and abroad.

The play runs at the Carnegie Stage in Carnegie through October 11. Tickets are available at https://pictclassictheatre.ludus.com/index.php.

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