A comedy about issues bigger than Bush

In this world-premiere production of Lee Blessing's

When We Go Upon the Sea

, commissioned by InterAct Theatre Company, George W. Bush holes up in a Dutch hotel room the night before his trial at the Hague for international war crimes.

So obviously, this is a drama in which Dubya will get his comeuppance and be exposed as the evildoer we knew he was all along. Or, much as in Will Ferrell's Broadway jaunt You're Welcome, America: A Final Night With George W. Bush, this is a comedy in which 43 will get his comeuppance as the butt of our collective frustration, with much laughter at his foolishness.

Wrong and wrong again. What's more, this isn't even really a drama about Bush, though it riffs on the former president's administration and personal history (you know things are about to take a turn for the wild when, in the first scene, Bush demands bourbon). Instead, it's about power and servitude, God and his absence, and what we allow to step in and fill the void. Now who's the fool? As George (Conan McCarty) sneers at hotel attendant Piet (Peter Schmitz), "Bill Clinton got impeached, not me."

Blessing's parable owes much of its success to Paul Meshejian's direction - orchestration, really - which places the apostle Piet and his Mary Magdalen-like associate Anna-Lisa (Kim Carson) amid a metaphoric tide that rages and recedes according to George's humor. Thom Weaver's lighting responds in kind, launching Meghan Jones' set from a cool Marriott white to hot purgatorial pink and back again.

If McCarty's blunt force powers the production, and Schmitz's steady unflappability anchors it, Carson provides its depth as a refugee seeking shelter from the global storm and offering comfort to the hotel's embattled guests. Undulating in an ocean-blue cocktail dress (costumes by Rosemarie McKelvey), her bounty is as great as her suffering.

Though Blessing allows his craft to drift as it nears its conclusion, offering three potential endings when there's still some distance left in the journey, there's enough existential and plot-driven mystery to keep it afloat.

Blessing (A Walk in the Woods, Thief River) raises more questions than he answers - for one, does he endorse the idea that wartime "neutrality" is preferable to resistance? - but that's OK. With the help of InterAct and its tireless advocacy for an audience of soul-searchers, the playwright implores Americans to take to the helm while our own shores are still relatively calm.

Through May 9 at InterAct Theatre Company, 2030 Sansom St., Philadelphia. Tickets: $25 to $28. Information: 215-568-8079 or www.interacttheatre.org.

EndText