It’s impossible for me not be be cynical about the next nationwide election (assuming we ever have another one of those) but if anything might reignite my faith and optimism in local politics, it’s Orlando-based storyteller Bobby Wesley’s (a)political, a seriocomic recounting of his 2006 stint as a fledgling campaign manager for his graduate-school pal.
An aimless overachiever desperate to be the first person in history to do something with his political science degree, Wesley worked tirelessly to help an anti-development Democrat defeat his ineffectual incumbent opponent in The Villages, Central Florida’s massive master-planned retirement community that is known nationwide for its golf carts, rampant STDs and self-selected segregation.
As a progressive activist since a young age, Wesley comes equipped with a flag to wave and literal soapbox to stand on, even if his campaign headquarters was merely a camper trailer parked in a cow pasture. During his tale of “Optimism turned OMG,” he faces sloshed supervoters, septuagenarian sex scandals, crazed country line dancers and chiropractic catastrophe.
Wesley’s clean-cut, buttoned-down stage presence isn’t as dramatically dynamic as some flashier solo performers. But he displays solid command of his material, and even if his presentation style is more NPR than WWE, his story of small-scale successes and deflating failures is a wholesome, hopeful reminder that America remains our republic … if we can keep it.
(a)political
Pink Venue, Lowndes Shakespeare Center
60 minutes; 13 & up
$15
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This article appears in May 14-20, 2025.