Joseph Hullett's "Confirmation," directed by Jocelyn Brown, is an astute political commentary about the black, white, and gray world of abortion in America. The premise is the more important as it is likely George Bush will make appointments to the Supreme Court bench during his term, potentially shifting the precarious hold on pro-choice. A reversal would have a tremendous impact on the lives of millions of women, reverting back to the pre-sexual liberation days of the late sixties.

The drama is an acurate portrayal of the corridors of power and intrigue in Washington's inner circles, where lives and reputations are built and lost on the capricious leaks, accidents and stifled scandals engineered by flawed human beings who purport to raise themselves against turpitude when standing on the staunch moral issues of Puritan America. Thus, an arch-feminist movement matriarch can have deep ambivalence about abortion when it touches her personally, and a strong anti-choice nominee can have harbored doubts when his former wife found herself in the very situation. The inevitable ingenue intern wreaks havoc when she stumbles upon revelations whose implications could tilt the balance of power. Ultimately, the final choice to reveal or not rests with her and her own shadowy guilt about her nascent Lesbian sexuality. The innocent end up paying the ultimate price for the vile vicissitudes of the wily old dogs - and bitches - of Capitol Hill.

The script is superbly tight, power packed with linguistic gems as we trod through living rooms and offices eavesdropping on private conversations between friends and enemies, witnessing turnabouts and impossible bargaining positions leveraged with veiled threats, blackmail and posturing. We see the columnist as calumnist, the difficult choices forced by integrity when good and bad are no longer all or nothing propositions in the murky, muddled waters of reality.

Bethany Prestigiacomo steals the show as power woman-libber Jeri Ransom wheedling her inept mate, Guardian journalist Preston Woods,

suavely portrayed by Tony Howley, as a Good Old Boy Peter Pan symbol dexterously manipulated. Paul Castellano is abject Senator Kingman, who exemplifies the consumate male chauvinistic pig. Casey Long is affable schemer Achenbach ruthlessly plotting on behalf of President Dixon, voiced over off stage by Bob Campbell. Andrea Marie Freeman is wide-eyed, innocent intern Brianna, torn between competing allegiances and her own budding individuation from her family's hold. Myrna Niles portrays Cailin O'Casey, the unwavering Irish matriarch grappling with her own ambivalence opposite former mate and Supreme Court candidate Solomon Cohen, a gentle man of unshakable principles played by Kim Kiedrowski.

In the balance is America's uneasy acceptance of basic women's rights, and (dare we utter the word?) atheism versus Puritan ideals at odds with the realities of the modern secular world, as well as the right to privacy of public figures and what constitutes ethical disclosure.