Drama of sex and politics has familiar ring

Jeff Gill and Kelly Rauch play a right-wing senator and his assistant. (Darren Evans)

Playwright Mac Wellman defies straightforward narrative in favor of witty wordplay, often skewering public ignorance and right-wing political ideology. Wellman, whose works are rarely seen in Boston, is now getting a wonderfully feverish production of "7 [Expletive]" by Theatre on Fire at the Charlestown Working Theater.

Written in 1991 as a reaction to Senator Jesse Helms's attempt to require a decency pledge from all National Endowment for the Arts grant recipients, and dedicated to Helms and Donald Wildmon of the American Family Association, "7 [Expletive]" - whose full title cannot be printed in a family newspaper - is less about the sexual act referred to in that title than about the characters' creative reactions to it. Although the play is nearly two decades old, scandals involving Bill Clinton and more recently Larry Craig, Eliot Spitzer, and Kwame Kilpatrick make the topic of political hypocrisy all too fresh.

When seven salacious photographs arrive at the office of a right-wing senator, they send his loyal staff into fits of shock and uncomfortable excitement. Is it their boss in the photos, or not? The delivery suggests either a smear campaign or surveillance to Dot the secretary (Susannah Melone), Bruce the legislative aide (Craig Houk), and Eileen the administrative assistant (Kelly Rauch). Paranoia in the office is already high because of Dot's nonsensical phone routine, which she says "Surveillance" insisted on after their boss, Senator Bob, described Arabs as insects.

Throughout most of the play, the trio pore over the offensive photos, their reactions revealing much about their own carefully constructed images as conservative Republican operatives. The simple-minded Dot (played by Melone with wide-eyed incredulity) says her first glimpse made her pass out. Bruce, who is responsible for drafting all the restrictive legislation in the office and proudly brags about his degree from Bob Jones University, declares he is the most shocked, even as he drools (Houk is hilarious as the photos send Bruce into a trancelike state). But Rauch nearly steals the show as Eileen, the uptight Dartmouth grad who reacts to the photos with a rubbery face and spastic body movements to reflect disgust, awe, disbelief, and amazement. "A picture can't torture or maim your heart," she insists.

When Senator Bob (the always impressive Jeff Gill) arrives, he's revealed to be a bombastic, homophobic ninny who turns to Reverend Tom (Steve Turner) for advice. Reverend Tom is clearly a fraud, delivering the sign of the cross and then shifting, with equal reverence, into the moves for the Macarena.

As Wellman bends and stretches the English language to serve his purposes, what seems like repetitive nonsense in the mouths of all the characters soon moves into a sharply defined political agenda. The arrival of Senator Bob's son Bob Junior and his surveillance-inspired double, "BobBob Junior," is supposed to move us toward an explosive climax, but Dot's simple explanation for the photos creates a bit of a letdown. Still, as political scandals fill the headlines, it's helpful to have Wellman remind us that Senator Bob's mad motto - "ignorance of the law is nine-tenths of the law" - is not an acceptable way to operate.