The Strangerer

Catastrophic Theatre's dramatic presentation of Mickle Maher's phantasmagoric 2004 head-to-head between Bush and Kerry, moderated by Jim Lehrer, is a must-see...Locklear gives the performance of his life, nailing W. with his weird pauses and malaprops ("middle-evil" is especially fine for "medieval"). He glides through the difficult non sequitur monologues, giving Bush a comprehensible, maddening humanity. Just as spot-on are Judge and Schulze. Matter of fact, the entire production is incredibly realized. "Perfectness," as W. might say.

Catastrophic Theatre has mounted a letter-perfect Houston premiere of Chicago playwright Mickle Maher's absurdist political satire...With the world growing more surreal by the moment, it's an achievement that The Strangerer makes the current political scene weirder than it is already. It's certainly a pivotal achievement of Catastrophic's fine rendition that Paul Locklear's uncannily apt Dubya emerges as funnier than the genuine article...Jason Nodler's astute, assertive direction crystallizes the play's moods, whether enigmatic, ruminative or sharply satiric. He and his three actors work the script's many levels without crossing into caricature...The Strangerer may be Theater of the Absurd — yet it's also the funniest and most acutely meaningful example of the genre I've encountered in ages.