The Speaker and the Upstart Talk It Out: N/A

In a play structured around a contest of ideologies, giving a character laugh lines is like handing them a weapon. The playwright may intend to be evenhanded, but the humor tends to be the giveaway. It can make someone seem smarter, wiser, more relatable, even if they’re espousing ideas you don’t agree with. An audience loves someone they can laugh with, regardless of what they’re saying (and so does a voter, as the Trump election has shown). In the play N/A, Mario Correa...