What I liked
The disdain and the respect these characters have for one another.
Hanna’s performance was truly fabulous.
What I didn't like
I both love and was thrown that this whole thing took place on the debate stage. I wouldn’t want it any other way, but I’m still wrapping my head around how different this style is than what you normally see onstage. A lot of playwrights currently struggle with realizing a more cinematic vision, but “Mayor’s Debate” is entirely on the other side of the spectrum.
My overall impression
Jim Hanna’s “The Mayor’s Debate of Tranquility, Nebraska” takes a concentrated, smart and undeniably hilarious look at our political habits. But while most plays of this nature use the story to react to our current political situation, Hanna removes the corrupt underbelly altogether and replaces it with something much more immediate and far more magically sinister- turning this political play into an abstract mind f**ck of an experience.
