Former Mahoning Valley Congressman James A. Traficant Jr. has been the subject of books, documentaries and podcasts since his death in 2014.

A stage production will be added to that list in September.

Auditions are being held this week for “Trapped,” a play written by London Cain, founder of the Iron Horse Theatre Company in Ambridge, Pa.

Cain said the suggestion for “Trapped” came from an actor friend originally from Youngstown. Cain wasn’t that familiar with Traficant initially, but the more he learned the more he thought the convict congressman would be a fascinating subject for a drama.

“The whole idea of this political anomaly, a working-class folk hero, and with all the charisma in the world,” Cain said. “It’s a character that’s just hard to resist. I came up with an idea that I thought would work. The whole play is basically the last three weeks in his prison cell.”

Traficant became a folk hero as Mahoning County Sheriff when he refused to evict laid off steel workers who couldn’t pay their mortgages when the mills closed. He also was accused of taking bribes from the mob around the same time. He defended himself in court and was acquitted in 1983, which helped catapult him to being elected to Congress the following year. The acquittal on racketeering and bribery charges didn’t stop him from being convicted of tax evasion and fraud four years later.

He was indicted again on federal corruption charges in 2001 for using campaign funds for personal use. He again defended himself in court, but this time he was convicted, serving seven years in prison and being expelled from the House of Representatives. He died in 2014 at age 73 following a tractor accident at his farm.

Cain didn’t want to reveal too many plot points about his script.

“I am hesitant to give away too much, because there’s some twists and turns and surprises in there that are going to catch people in a way that I think they’re going to be surprised,” he said.

For the description of the play released with the audition notice, he wrote, “‘Trapped’ follows corrupt ex-Congressman Jim Traficant as he battles with his conscience while in solitary confinement. He is visited by Lisa, a mysterious woman who attempts to force him to reevaluate his life while struggling to get him to see the light.

“The play explores three emotionally complicated characters: Jim, who longs to do good but refuses to fully admit his wrongs; Lisa, who plays devil’s advocate to pull Jim toward darkness; and a sympathetic correction officer who has overcome his own difficult past in search of stability. The production is an emotional rollercoaster filled with striking visual imagery and intense psychological conflict.”

It’s safe to say Traficant wasn’t the first — and he definitely wasn’t the last — politician who professed to be a man of the people despite overwhelming evidence that he was driven by self-interest, and that duality is one of the aspects that interested Cain.

“He was denying things that were pretty crystal clear (he’d done),” Cain said. “I think even the people who followed him, his loyal constituents, were like, ‘Yeah, we know he’s a crook, but he’s our crook,’ that kind of a thing. They’re just willing to accept it.

“That’s sort of what I explored. What would happen if he would have just said, ‘Okay, I did some good things, but I did screw up, I made mistakes.’ Maybe he would have been more popular at that point if he’d done that.”

Cain has one more day of auditions on Friday before he picks his lead actor.

Traficant isn’t the first real-life figure Cain has built a play around. He co-wrote and directed “12:52, The Mike Webster Story,” a play about the Hall of Fame center for the Pittsburgh Steelers who was the first NFL player diagnosed with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). It premiered at Iron Horse in 2021. Cain adapted the stage production into a screenplay called “Sonny and Mike,” which will be shot in McKees Rocks, Pa., and other greater Pittsburgh locations this summer.

Instead of opening at the 60-seat Iron Horse performance space, “Trapped” will be staged at the 350-seat Kelly Strayhorn Theater in Pittsburgh’s East Liberty neighborhood for a seven-performance run. Tickets are on sale now at kelly-strayhorn.org/events/.

“It’s a beautiful theater, really nice stage,” Cain said. “We’ve got a really amazing set that we’ve designed. It’s gonna look like an isolation cell.”

Andy Gray is the entertainment editor of Ticket. Write to him at agray@tribtoday.com.