Sadness pervades Bryn Tanner's play (with five original songs by Zach Miller) about Minnesota's late U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone, killed in an airplane crash in October 2002. Most of the story takes place in 2001 and 2002, with the proudly progressive Wellstone deciding to seek a third term after promising just two. Political junkies will love the show's takes on the state's other senator then, Rudy Boschwitz, and President George W. Bush (its Norm Coleman is less satisfying). Actor Michael Turner is too mellow to evoke Wellstone's spark. Theatergoers may get chills when he votes, heroically, against Bush's Iraq War resolution. (8:30 p.m. Sun., 7 p.m. Mon., 10 p.m. Wed., 5:30 p.m. Sat., Rarig Center Thrust, 330 21st Av. S., Mpls.)

CHRISTY DeSMITH