confirmation synopsis

2^nd Prize 1996 South Carolina NationalPlaywrighting Contest
Finalist Pittsburgh International Play Competition

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Synopsis

As contemporary as headlines and as ancient as Medea. Shortly after the next election, shoo-in Supreme Court Justice nominee Solomon P. Lieberman — known for his opposition to the choice, if not the constitutionality, of abortion — is torpedoed. Intransigent leader of the National Women's Plurality, Jeri Ransom, and guilt-ridden Pulitzer Prize winning Guardian columnist, Preston Woods, together pressure a fragile intern to make public her discovery that the nominee and his erstwhile lover, Cailin O’Casey — a fiery, feminist author and matriarch of the woman’s movement — had thirty years before secretly aborted their own unwanted pregnancy.

While the well-meaning President and his ruthless Chief of Staff scramble for spin control, the liberal Judiciary Committee Chairman, debauched Senator "Bob" Kingman, convenes an irregular, eleventh hour inquiry and subpoenas the author to testify.

Caught up in the uncivil warfare waged by those for whom ends justify means, nominee and author — still in love despite the rift of time and philosophy — meet in the Oval Office. Indeed, remorse has forged of Lieberman an adamantine foe of abortion. Personal responsibility, on the other hand, has case-hardened O’Casey’s conviction that choice is essential where life is the standard of value.

Amid the circus of a climactic public tribunal, common ground seems impossible. And painfully aware that private treachery might, ultimately, purchase public welfare, Lieberman and O’Casey must weigh the right to privacy against the consequences of its betrayal.

Solomon P. Lieberman:	Indomitable, sixty-five year old Constitutional Law Professor and nominee for Supreme Court Justice. Opponents acknowledge his unquestioned integrity and dispassionate dedication to reason. Nevertheless, his personal opposition to abortion jeopardizes confirmation.
Cailin O'Casey:	A fiery, fifty-ish, Irish-American woman whose impassioned feminist books led to formation of the National Women's Plurality. Her intolerance of politics, however, estranged her from the movement to which she gave birth.
Jeri Ransom:	A ruthless middle-aged woman at the peak of her intellectual, physical, and political power. Her diplomatic veneer hides a virulent hatred of men. Originally Cailin's factotum, she seized NWP control.
Brianna Tidemore:	Jeri's fragile, idealistic intern and secret lover who found in O'Casey's books a safe-harbor during the storms of adolescence. She joined the NWP, but hides much of her emerging self from her blue-collar family.
Preston Woods:	New York Guardian columnist who betrayed O’Casey for a Pulitzer Prize.
William "Bill" Dixon:	Well meaning, conservative President of the United States recently elected by a splintered, single-issue, special interest populace. He speaks for a minority at a time when no majority can be mustered.
Lawrence Achenbach:	The President's ambitious Chief of Staff whose ends are power and whose means are gauged only by success.
Robert "Bob" Kingman:	Corpulent Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and last champion of New Deal liberalism. Like a debauched Roman demagogue, his private dissolution flaunts every liberal principle.

Act I:	Act II:
Scene 1: Jeri Ransom’s Washington DC hotel room (1)	Scene 1: O’Casey’s apartment (3)
Scene 2: Oval Office (2)	Scene 2: Oval Office (2)
Scene 3: O’Casey’s DC high-rise apartment (3)	Scene 3: Oval Office (2)
Scene 4: The Judiciary Committee Hearing Room (4)	Scene 4: Oval Office (2)
Scene 5: Ransom’s hotel (1)	Scene 5: Hearing Room (4)