ELECTION NIGHT NEVER ENDS —
AND NEITHER DO THE ARGUMENTS

Lisa Kron’s In the Wake revisits post-2000 political
disillusionment through a fracturing group of friends

While the production of Lisa Kron’s In the Wake by The Bent is stupendous, it is not always an easy play to like—but it is a compelling one to wrestle with.

Set in the immediate aftermath of the 2000 election, the play centers on Ellen (Kim Schroeder Long), a politically obsessive liberal New Yorker whose outrage over George W. Bush’s presidency bleeds into every corner of her personal life. She berates friends, alienates loved ones, and ultimately destabilizes her own relationship with her partner Danny (Ashley Robinson), a genial schoolteacher who would prefer a quieter existence. Around them orbits a tight-knit circle—Danny’s sister and Ellen’s bestie Kayla (Kudra Wagner) and her partner Laurie, the caustically pragmatic Judy (Sharianne Greer), and Judy’s teenage niece Tessa (Allie Hebb)—all of whom are pulled into Ellen’s escalating emotional and ideological storms. The main part of the plot, other than frequent political arguments, is Ellen’s affair with Amy (J. Clare Merritt), which introduces a destabilizing love triangle that mirrors her political volatility, leaving a wake of emotional damage that the play examines with more persistence than precision.

The script by Kron (book and lyrics for Fun Home) is dense with argument. Politics here is not background but bloodstream, with news footage and contemporary rhetoric woven into the action. The characters debate, deflect, and monologue their way through questions that still feel uncomfortably current: How much should politics define a life? Where does moral conviction end and personal responsibility begin? And what happens when ideology becomes a substitute for intimacy?

If that sounds heavy, it often is. In the Wake is undeniably talky—sometimes to a fault—and its central character is intentionally difficult.

And yet, what’s striking is how little the material has dated. Written in 2010, Kron’s portrait of liberal disillusionment in the Bush era plays today less like a period piece than a dry run for the present. The language of outrage, the sense of political impotence, the fracturing of relationships along ideological lines—it all lands with unnerving familiarity. If anything, the play now feels like it’s speaking in two timeframes at once.

At Camelot Theatre, director Laura Stearns navigates this tonal minefield with impressive control. She resists the temptation to turn Ellen into a caricature or the supporting characters into mere foils, instead allowing the contradictions to sit uncomfortably in the room. The humor—often sharp and surprising—emerges organically, without undercutting the play’s more sobering undercurrents.

The ensemble is uniformly strong. Kim Schroeder Long’s Ellen is not softened for audience sympathy, but neither is she reduced to a scold; the performance captures both the character’s intelligence and her exhausting relentlessness. Ashley Robinson brings a grounded warmth to Danny, offering a necessary counterbalance, while Kudra Wagner and Jessica Lenz give Kayla and Laurie an easy intimacy that underscores what Ellen stands to lose. Sharianne Greer’s Judy cuts through the ideological fog with bracing cynicism, and Allie Hebb’s Tessa provides an observant presence amid the chaos.

Visually, Jason Reale’s set grounds the production in a lived-in New York apartment that feels both intimate and slightly heightened—a space where domestic comfort and emotional volatility coexist. The environment supports the play’s central tension: a seemingly stable world constantly on the verge of rupture.

In the Wake ultimately asks a question it cannot fully answer: how to live ethically in a world that feels politically broken without allowing that brokenness to consume everything else. Kron doesn’t resolve that tension, and at times the script circles it redundantly. But under Stearns’s direction, the production keeps the inquiry alive.

It may not be a feel-good evening. But it is a thought-provoking one—and, in its best moments, a disturbingly recognizable one.

✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

photos by Kayla Gordon

In the Wake
The Bent
Palm Springs Cultural Center (Camelot Theatres)
2300 East Baristo Road, Palm Springs, CA
Thurs–Fri at 7; Sat at 2 & 7; Sun at 2
ends on February 28, 2026
for tickets, visit The Bent

✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦