The Jim Lehrer Plays

Drama. It’s the first debate of the 2004 presidential campaign and President George W. Bush is determined to kill PBS news anchor Jim Lehrer live on stage. His opponent, Senator Kerry, agrees Lehrer should die–Indeed, what else tonight besides the manner of Jim Lehrer’s execution could be of interest to any man?–but disagrees on the matter of when and where. 12 years later, Jim Lehrer sits alone in his spacious and indifferently furnished DC suburban home narrating to himself the news of the day. That is until his roommate–also Jim Lehrer–rushes in to warn him of an angry mob descending on their location. Collected here for the first time, Chicago playwright Mickle Maher’s THE JIM LEHRER PLAYS–The Strangerer and Jim Lehrer and the Theater and its Double and Jim Lehrer’s Double–connect and critique their times’ political insanities while pulling inspiration from Camus, Artaud, and Maher’s favorite news personality, Jim Lehrer.