An intimate psychological drama centered on an evolving encounter between two men, set within a luxury hotel suite in Washington, D.C. Over the course of a single evening, what begins as a familiar encounter slowly becomes something neither man anticipated, as the roles and defenses that have long defined their relationship begin to fall away, forcing each to confront the flawed human being before him.

• ONE MAN SELLS HIS BODY. THE OTHER SELLS HIS SOUL.

A Situation is an exploration of the psyche of two men—one who sells his body for money, and another who has sold his soul for power.

The play is interested in what people are willing to surrender in exchange for something they desperately want—money, security, status, power, acceptance.

Evan has sold his body.

Mercer has sold something far more consequential: his authentic self.

That question has taken on an unexpected resonance in the current American political conversation surrounding what Hunter Biden has called the “Closetocracy”—the possibility that the psychological costs of maintaining a concealed identity at the highest levels of power may extend beyond the individual and influence how that power is exercised against others.

• THE ROLES WE PERFORM

Every person performs versions of themselves. Some performances are chosen. Others become necessary for survival. But extraordinary circumstances can strip away those protective roles, forcing us to confront one another without the masks we have constructed. For Evan and Mercer, that confrontation may be the first genuinely unguarded encounter of their lives.

• COMPARTMENTALIZATION

We separate contradictory parts of ourselves in order to function. But what is divided psychologically does not necessarily remain separate.

• THE PRICE OF TRUTH

Truth is rarely consequence-free. Sometimes the question is not whether something is true, but whether telling it is worth what follows.

• COMPASSION WITHOUT EXONERATION

Understanding why someone became who they are does not erase what they have done.

• THE FAILURE OF CERTAINTY

Certainty can make us feel safe. It can also prevent us from seeing another person clearly.

As a Clinical Psychologist, I have long been fascinated by contradictory behavior—the psychological phenomena that emerge from profound inner conflict, including concepts such as Reaction Formation and Projection. This fascination is what gave rise to A Situation.

Reaction Formation

This is when an individual so rejects or refuses to accept a part of themselves that they unconsciously transform the unacceptable feeling, impulse, or desire into its opposite. It can sometimes manifest as vehement hostility toward people or behaviors that evoke the rejected part of themselves. It is a defensive response to an aspect of themselves that they cannot tolerate, but because the underlying conflict remains unresolved, the defense does not eliminate it.

But Mercer isn't merely reacting to something he cannot tolerate in himself. He deliberately cultivates positions against it, building an anti-gay public record that provides evidence of his supposed polar opposite.

Would I be so vehemently opposed to it if I were secretly one of them?

That creates a kind of self-authored alibi. Public hostility becomes part of his camouflage.

Reaction Formation: At the unconscious level, he converts an unacceptable aspect of himself into its apparent opposite.

Projection: He attacks or rejects in others something that resonates with what he cannot acknowledge in himself.

Conscious self-protection: He recognizes that his public opposition can function as evidence against the very suspicion he fears.

Their behavior isn't entirely defensive or unconscious. They have learned to weaponize their own denial. It is a form of deniability as performance.

The Psychological Mirror

Mercer and Sprite appear to be doing almost opposite things with sexuality, but the underlying function may be remarkably similar.

Mercer:

If I perform heterosexuality convincingly enough, nobody can know who I really am.

Sprite:

If I perform sexuality convincingly enough, nobody can get close enough to know who I really am.

Mercer performs the absence of sexuality. Sprite performs sexuality itself.

Mercer turns sexuality into something he must conceal. Sprite turns sexuality into something he can use.

And both strategies create distance.

That makes Sprite more than Mercer's psychological foil. He becomes the other half of the play's exploration of intimacy, performance, and self-protection.

Mercer wants the role-play to make something real that he cannot admit is real.

Sprite makes role-play his profession precisely so that he doesn't have to make anything real. The name Sprite provides that distance the real Evan requires. It allows him to create separation between the person he is and the person he performs.

Where Mercer constructs rigid boundaries around his identity, Evan is more fluid. He adapts. He bends.

Mercer wants fantasy to become reality. Sprite needs reality to remain fantasy.

Deniability as Performance 

Public Mercer: I am not that.

Private Mercer: I can become that here.

Role-play Mercer: I can be that without having to admit that I am that.

His public denial and private enactment aren't actually opposites. They are two sides of the same unresolved conflict. The more rigorously he constructs one, the more intensely he needs the other.

And that gives A Situation a deeper psychological meaning. The situation isn't simply that Mercer has been caught in a compromising circumstance. He has constructed an elaborate psychological situation in which his public and private selves can coexist—until the walls between them begin to collapse.

SPOILER WARNING
The following synopsis contains significant plot details, including the ending. If you have not yet read or seen A Situation, you may wish to skip it.

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Senator Harlan Mercer is scheduled to meet a Ukrainian defense representative to discuss the latest defense package. As the meeting progresses, we realize something else is afoot.

The young operative makes advances on the Senator. The Senator demurs, calling off what would have been another in a list of many elaborate role-plays performed by his escort, Evan Reed, whose street name is Sprite.

What follows is an increasingly intimate and unpredictable encounter between two men who have learned to survive by separating the different parts of themselves.

Mercer reveals that he has been diagnosed with a terminal illness and has only months to live.

As the evening unfolds, the defenses that have sustained his public and private identities begin to fracture. Reed, who has enlisted a colleague to fulfill one of Mercer’s fantasies, further complicates the boundaries between performance and reality.

As the confrontations between Evan and Mercer escalate, they reveal connections and similarities that each had not considered before.

But Mercer and Evan are not alone. The housekeeper who stocked the liquor bottles prior to Evan’s arrival is an activist named Jenny. She is part of a radical Queer group called the Spring-Cleaning Crew, a group dedicated to exposing hypocritical, closeted public figures.

She has planted a listening device beneath the tray she left behind while delivering the liquor.

When Mercer’s head of security becomes aware of this security breach, the increasingly volatile situation extends beyond the confines of Suite 1805.

When a recording of the evening is discovered, the question becomes not simply what Mercer has done, or who he really is, but what should happen when the truth is placed in someone else’s hands.

The choice carries consequences for everyone in Suite 1805.