Michael Hagins’ Powerful New Play The Senator Speaks Examines the Human Consequences of Playing Politics

“We are all mired in dark times,” proclaims Conservative Republican Senator Calvin Shepherd (Michael J. Whitten). “At a time when the hard left is helping to ruin this country. Liberty is under assault…we are going to arm up and fight back.” Shepherd is spending the morning at home, surrounded by portraits of Reagan, Bush I, a large cross, and an even larger American Flag. He is practicing the Keynote speech he is scheduled to deliver to the National Rifle Association.

“It’s just rhetoric,” he admits to his religious, reserved wife Martha (Mary Sheridan). “I don’t believe any of it.”

Unsure of his own talking points, Shepherd keeps running to his desk to double-check his prepared script; he humorously has trouble saying the word “statistician.” But these are the least of his issues; his liberal activist, liberal arts-studying daughter Corinne (Olivia Whicheloe) is home from college, and they’re destined for another shouting match, which Martha wearily prepares to referee. (The relationship between father and daughter is exemplified by Corinne having thrown red paint on him during one of her many protest outings.)

Adding exponentially to the tension is the presence of Danny Johns (Xavier Rodney/Michael Hagins at Friday performances). Political Machiavelli Danny is essentially Shepherd’s Chief of Staff, and the devil on his shoulder, pulling the strings to advance Shepherd’s career and reap for himself the resulting rewards. (He also boasts that he’s the guy that makes potential “problems” go away for anyone who does what he wants.)

As events unfold, we learn that Shepherd’s voting history—the details of which he often struggles to recall—is coming back to haunt him. His rejection of background checks has put a gun in the hands of a young man who is now an active school shooter, just a few miles away, and ironically, mere hours before Shepherd is to go before the NRA. To the Shepherds’ horror, their young niece Jamie is one of the students trapped inside. Danny reveals that he’d been aware that the gunman was a potential threat to the community for some time, and he had strategically swept the information under the rug. But even now, this “incident” is all a mere inconvenience, and one that can be spun for political gain. “You can be America’s rock,” he later implores Shepherd. “The senator who overcame tragedy to bring this country to a stronger future.”

Amid an agonizing tug-of-war between Danny and the Shepherd family for the soul of the Senator, Corinne reveals that something terrible had recently happened to her at college. It’s indeed a crime against her, but one that she will receive no justice or recompense for—as a result of her father’s earlier political decisions. A further family revelation drives home the hypocrisy at the heart of Shepherd’s very being. Thus, at the urging of Danny and for the sake of some perks hidden in big wordy bills, Shepherd has essentially sold out his own family, to tragic consequences.

Brilliantly written and directed with no punches pulled by Michael Hagins, The Senator Speaks comes at a pivotal moment in history, when the chasm between congressman and constituent has never been greater. Hagins exposes the rot at the center of the politician’s heart; Shepherd is both callous and clueless, and this characterization is far from hyperbole in the turbulent early days of 2025. Corinne refers to Danny as “Rasputin,” and she is not far off; the kingmaker is not only a puppet master, but also so powerful in the political sphere as to be seemingly invincible. A disgusted Corinne asks him what he believes in. “Money,” he replies cooly. Shepherd is caught between Danny and his pleading family in a gripping and heartbreaking battle that singlehandedly sums up all that is wrong with American society.

The actors perfectly embody their roles, to the extent that the audience feels they are eavesdropping on a real family’s despair and disintegration. Rodney/Hagins’ Danny is a supervillain oozing with evil—but chillingly, he’s also completely realistic. The same is true for Whitten’s corrupted Shepherd, a man so consumed with his career and so brainwashed by his puppeteer that he can barely discern right from wrong anymore. Whicheloe’s assertive, fed-up Corinne is at turns defiant and heartbreaking—as is Sheridan’s disillusioned Martha, whose wavering admiration of her husband gives way to complete contempt. Whicheloe and Sheridan are compelling as their characters come to terms with the reality that their father/husband is not a person they can ever again stand with or depend on.

The Senator Speaks is a must-see production in an era when the creative voice is needed more than ever to speak to the troubles of our times, and to be our companion as we navigate the turbulent seas ahead of us.

The Senator Speaks is part of the African American Playwrights Initiative at the ATA. It is playing through March 8 at the Sargent Theater at the American Theatre of Actors.