Fed up with every day’s endless stream of political news and discord? You might find a pleasant break from it all with Florida Studio Theatre’s current production of The Outsider, a comedy about—wait for it—a politician in trouble.

Maybe that sounds too familiar, but Paul Slade Smith’s play isn’t out to pick sides in this election year. It’s more about what government is, ideally, supposed to do, and how political experts and the media play a sometimes harmful role in the process of electing and covering candidates and office holders.

The key office holder here is Ned Newley (frequent FST actor Sheffield Chastain), who’s very recently, and unwillingly, ascended to the role of governor of his state after the former governor is caught out in an affair. Ned is schlubby, awkward, poor at communication (he mutters to himself incomprehensibly much of the time) and supremely uncomfortable with leaving his quiet post as lieutenant governor, where he was actually doing a lot of important but unseen work, for the bigger spotlight of being No. 1.

After a disastrous, televised swearing in, his loyal chief of staff, Dave Riley (Gil Brady), hires a savvy pollster he knows, Paige Caldwell (Heather Patterson King), to help turn things around. She in turn brings onboard advisor Arthur Vance (Roy Stanton), who resembles, with Southern swagger and shaved head, a James Carville type. He's determined to succeed in making Ned seem “an average guy”—an outsider—with a short, simple series of pat answers to media questions that will keep him safe.

And that leads to an interview with Rachel Parsons (Tatiana Williams), who’s just bristling with questions her boss won’t allow her to ask, accompanied by a cameraman (Kevin Cristaldi) whose preferred mode of expression is a grunt. In the meantime, Riley has also hired a temp, Louise (Eileen Ward), whose picture should accompany the definition of ditzy in the dictionary. Through some unlikely but amusing developments, she becomes a candidate for the position of lieutenant gov that Ned has just vacated.

There’s a lot going on here, including physical comedy bound to make you laugh, and some well-timed delivery of punch lines by the cast, directed by Kate Alexander. But as the show winds to its close, there are also some sharp pokes at the American political process and even a little uplift about how democracy works—or doesn’t. (You may recall that famous Winston Churchill quote: “Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”)

The cast makes the most of Smith’s satiric elements, while still giving characters (mainly Ned and Louise) some heart. Chastain is totally believable in a role very different from some he’s played here before (think angry newsman Howard Beale in Network), and he’s matched on the likability meter by Ward, who reminds me a little of Carrie Preston on the TV show Elsbeth. Both actors can mine laughs with just a movement or a facial expression; Daniel Ciba’s costume designs help define them, too.

So laugh, cry, rage at the political system we have—and then, like The Outsider, leave just a little bit of hope for the future. We need it.

The Outsider continues through Aug. 18 in the Gompertz Theatre. For tickets, call (941) 366-9000 or visit floridastudiotheatre.org.