Charles A. Duncombe

Patriot Act: a Reality Show Charles A. Duncombe

Winner of the Fratti/Newman Award for Political Playwriting.

A million dollars to the most patriotic man or woman in America--and America does the voting! Do you love your country? Do you stand united? Do you support our troops? Do you have what it takes to make it to the final round?

A man reports to a testing center for his final casting interview. There are a lot of forms to fill out. Then there's his psychological profile, his medical testing, and his background check. The questions never seem to stop. Some of them seem awfully personal, some of them almost seem like an invasion of privacy. Don't worry, his interviewers assure him. It's all part of the process. All part of getting selected for the most exciting new reality show in America!

"Patriot Act is a very simple piece of political theater but not a simplistic one. Like the would-be contestant, we don't realize until it's too late that each of the man's answers to his interviewers' questions has clicked a lock on his freedom. The frightening thing is that no matter what replies the man (or we) supplies, the judges are likely to interpret them as unreliable and persuade their prisoner that even if he were innocent of any suspected wrongdoing, it is in the country's best interests that he go along with whatever the government declares as truth. Patriot Act is not at all a disposable piece of agitprop likely to fade with the legislation for which it is named. It is a peculiar examination of gullible America's trust in authority that finds us fatally incurious about the matter."

--LA Weekly