As an image of her younger self in a gown appears, Ivins, played by Sara Gaston, says, "This is at a debutante ball or some such virgin sacrifice." After getting hired by the New York Times, the holy grail for a journalist, she quips, "I went to the Big Apple where I was miserable at five times the salary and where my copy was declawed and neutered."

Of America, of which Ivins claims to be rather fond she says, "We're a people who get spray tans and use striped toothpaste. We're a nation undeterred by reality."

There were groans of pain and delight as the play takes aim at familiar Texas figures. This should be no surprise in a play about the woman who christened George W. Bush "Shrub."