E-Mail This Article to a Friend Cape crusaders Robert Reich and John Buffalo Mailer mix playwriting and politics BY SALLY CRAGIN

After a prolonged post–September 11 irony hiatus, political satire and commentary are thriving on the outer tip of Cape Cod. Starting next weekend, renowned and edgy Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater and up-and-coming Provincetown Repertory Theatre will offer new work by famous names if not famous playwrights. Robert Reich (Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Labor and two-time Bay State gubernatorial hopeful) and John Buffalo Mailer (ninth son of Norman Mailer) have written plays that holds a lens up to fractious current events. Opening at neighboring Cape theaters, they’ll provide a respite from the faded TV stars and old musicals that are part and parcel of summer stock.

Public Exposure is Reich’s first stage work, a ribald political farce that had a well-received public reading courtesy of WHAT earlier this year. This full production is directed by WHAT’s imaginative co-artistic director, Gip Hoppe. The play’s focus is Bill Humphrey, a neo-con talk-show host who throws his hat (and some other garments) into the presidential ring. Reich spoke about the piece while driving on Highway 101 back to Berkeley, where he’s teaching this semester. "The play is filled with little winks and hopefully loud guffaws." Frances Perkins, for example, is named for the first female Secretary of Labor, who served under FDR. "As the [2004 presidential] election approached, I found myself — like many people — frustrated with what’s happening in this country. And I spend a great deal of time in my normal life writing serious books and speaking and trying to help causes that I believe in. I can’t tell you psychologically where the play came from, but last fall it bubbled up."

Public Exposure’s conservative yet priapic main character bears some resemblance to a couple of other famous Bills, but Reich denies any connection to the former president. "Any suggestion that these characters resemble real people is purely coincidence and is probably a delusion in the audience’s mind."

Now at work on his 11th book (serious) and second play (less serious), he finds himself delighted by this burgeoning second act, as it were. "I love playwriting, and it’s taken me 35 years to get back to it. Who knows where these things come from?"

North of Wellfleet, John Buffalo Mailer is watching rehearsals for his Crazy Eyes, a taut four-person drama set in October 2001 in Brooklyn. When Will, an ardent and paranoid would-be patriot, captures Ibrahim, the owner of the local 99-cent store, and accuses him of terrorist activities, confusion and intrigue ensue. The play premiered last year in Greece and now makes its American debut at the Provincetown Theater. "It’s about angst and fears and a new time in New York," Mailer notes. "It’s about our fears smacking us in the face."

In Crazy Eyes, we’re never sure who the villain is. Is Will a one-man Homeland Securities vigilante, or is Ibrahim guilty of possessing a deadly powder? Mailer began the work shortly after September 11; he finished revising last year. He was most interested in the psychological impact of the attacks. "The thing about Americans that’s wild is that 99 percent of us have a good heart. Nine-eleven was an intrusion on the bubble and opened a lot of people’s eyes on what was going on." To the inevitable question about his father’s influence, he notes that the "biggest advantage is having Norman Mailer as a writing teacher — that’s something I cherish."

Public Exposure is at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater, 1 Kendrick Avenue in Wellfleet, May 25 through June 18. Tickets are $19 to $25; call (866) 811-4111, or visit www.what.org. Crazy Eyes is presented by Provincetown Repertory Theatre at the Provincetown Theater, 238 Bradford Street in Provincetown, May 26 through June 12. Tickets are $28; call (508) 487-9793, or visit ptowntix.com.