Playwright, producer, and cultural critic Jeremy O. Harris has never been one to mince words. During a wide-ranging conversation ahead of the midterm elections, he sounded off on establishment Democrats. “Why are you so addicted to losing?” he asked Vanity Fair’s Mark Guiducci on the latest episode of VF’s long-form interview series, Fair Game. “I’m a really competitive bitch. And if I saw that every time we brought out a crotchety 60-year-old white person or Black woman who is like, ‘Honestly, give Israel more money,’ or anyone who’s like, ‘Oh, by the way, I don’t think people deserve all of their health care.’ Anytime that someone has done that, they lose on the left.”
As for the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), Harris hopes to meet with New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani to discuss issues close to home—namely, what the playwright calls a “crisis moment” around Broadway ticket prices. “Mamdani, you are calling everyone. Anyone who talks about a pothole, the subway being too hot, you are answering their call,” Harris began. “I’m doing this on Vanity Fair. Call me. Your people know me. Let’s talk about how to make theater more accessible in the city, how to bring the rents down on theater, how we do a theater rent-freeze somehow, because I think that there is something really frightening about the greatest city in the world not having the greatest culture in the world.”
