Farragut North

It's not a pretty picture, the making of politics. Beau Willimon, who was a campaign aide to Sen. Charles E. Schumer and former Vermont governor Howard Dean before becoming a playwright, has tapped into his past to fashion a drama, Farragut North, which exposes just how awful our political system is.

Chris Pine, Capt. Kirk in the new "Star Trek," plays Stephen Bellamy, a young press secretary for a Democratic pol desperately trying to win a caucus battle in Iowa. If he bests his party rival, it's virtually assured he'll be a shoo-in to become the country's next President.

Dirty tricks are the preferred way to success, the more vicious and underhanded the better (such as trying to pin an anti-Semitic label on his opponent). Manipulating the media is also part of the job description, with a public-be-damned attitude that makes a mockery of all notions of how a democracy should work.

Caught up in this dog-eat-dog world are Paul Zara (Chris Noth), Stephen's boss whose ambitions are only matched by his ruthlessness; Tom Duffy (Isiah Whitlock, Jr.), the rival side's press secretary; Molly (Olivia Thirlby), a Monica Lewinsky-like intern; Ida (Mia Barron), a New York Times reporter who's as cunning and manipulative as the candidates she's writing about.

The only one with a shred of idealism and decency is Ben (Dan Bittner), a young deputy press secretary -- and even he eventually becomes corrupted by the system.

Duplicity, betrayal and backstabbing are the norm in this world, if only because the stakes are so high. Win Iowa, and Stephen will end up cavorting in the White House for four years. Lose, and he'll be forced to become -- the horror of it! -- a consultant, living in a downscale Washington D.C. suburb along with the Capital's other losers (hence the play's title).

Packed with snappy, sassy dialogue, full of Machiavellian plot twists and turns, acted by a skilled ensemble (many of whom were in the play's New York production), and skillfully directed by Doug Hughes, Farragut North is a piece of hard-edged topical theater, a political expose right up there with David Hare's Stuff Happens. To see it is to understand why Ambrose Bierce once described politics as "a strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.