Weathering the last five years of pandemic, political horror, and economic woes has been hard, especially for live theater. COVID shutdowns sent audiences online, and they still haven’t come back. The current administration full of hateful philistines gutted National Endowment for the Arts funding, especially for institutions promoting art about diversity and gender identity.

If all the world’s a stage, then our world must be in a bad way.

Despite it all, the Seattle theater scene is still kicking and still recovering. The stages across town are striving for a 2025–2026 season full of life—and one chock-full of productions that can’t help reflecting the times, either directly or through an escapist respite. The purpose of playing, after all, is to hold up a mirror to nature. Or whatever

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