Award-winning playwright and screenwriter Topher Payne has a new comedy premiering this week at OnStage Atlanta that zeros in on a scandal-ridden U.S. presidency.
And, no, it’s not about the current administration, although Payne said theatre-goers will likely see parallels between the 29th president and the 47th.
“A First Lady’s Guide to Killing the President” looks back at the events leading up to the death of President Warren G. Harding in 1923. Harding was on a summer-long whistle-stop tour out west to mend his damaged reputation after he gave high-ranking positions to golf buddies and cronies who used their offices to accept bribes, commit fraud, and dispense political favors.
That’s where the action of Payne’s new play takes place – a railroad car where beleaguered First Lady Florence Mabel Harding flirts with homicide over her philandering husband, multiple mistresses, incompetent administration officials, a pet squirrel, and a cursed diamond.
“There’s a point in the show where Florence reflects that she bet all of her chips on a shameless man, which made Harding seem bold, brave, and innovative because he was unencumbered by a sense of shame. But she realizes how important a sense of shame is for moral balance.”
Payne said he was interested in the psychology of a man who believes he has the power to fix a country’s problems. “I can only imagine the pathology of anyone who runs for president who looks at the myriad of problems in this country and says, ‘I think I can fix that.'”
The comedy takes place in real time over two hours – the length of Harding’s last train ride from Sacramento to San Francisco, where he would die of a heart attack.
Payne said the spark of the play came from a 1930 book called “The Strange Death of President Harding” that was widely discredited upon its release for accusing the First Lady of killing the president.
“This was my first exposure to anything related to Warren Harding, but reading the author’s argument for why it makes sense that Florence would have killed him became a really compelling launchpad for the story. The author basically accuses her of justfiable homicide because Harding had become such a liability that the only thing she could do is kill him.”
Payne said the wild premise of the book had such a Southern gothic “some men just need killing” concept about it, that his mind immediately started imagining an overwrought melodrama mixed with “Carol Burnett Show”-style farce taking place inside a tiny train car.
The actual train car that carried Harding’s body back to Washington D.C. is on display at the Southeastern Railway Museum in Duluth, GA. Payne, who is also directing the show, went for a visit and decided then and there that the set for “A First Lady’s Guide…” would be the exact dimensions – 10 feet deep by 19 feet long.
“You have seven people doing farce in this limited space, and it feels like the whole thing takes place in a box of animal crackers,” Payne said.
Payne said the parallels between now and then make for interesting context. The United States was fresh off a global influenza pandemic that killed millions, and Harding was a staunch Republican surrounded by cronies and yes men.
“Every character in this story is a Republican,” Payne said. “I had no interest in telling a story that was like, ‘Oh, look how terrible they are.’ That’s entertaining for about five minutes. The only way to get an audience interested is to give them characters worth investing in.”
Comedic melodrama has been a calling card for Payne his entire career – from his early drag performances at Julia Sugarbaker in hilarious recreations of “Designing Women” episodes to his critically acclaimed plays “Perfect Arrangement” and “Angry Fags.”
He’s also a prolific creator of the Christmas movies that air on the Hallmark Channel each holiday season, including “A Gift to Remember” and “Broadcasting Christmas.” His sixth Hallmark movie will be out later this year, but he’s sworn to secrecy about the title and plot.
Process Theatre Company‘s production of “A First Lady’s Guide to Killing the President” runs Sept. 12-28 at OnStage Atlanta, 3041 North Decatur Road in Scottdale. Performances are held on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m., with one Saturday matinee scheduled for Sept. 27 at 3 p.m. The opening night performance is already sold out. Get tickets at OnStageAtlanta.com.
