Intertested?

“Hillary and Monica: The Winter of Her Discontent,” runs through June 3 at the Gloucester Stage, 267 East Main St., Gloucester.  Performances are Friday, Jine 1, at 8 p.m., Saturday, June 2, at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday, June 3 at 5 p.m. Tickets, $35 (general), $30 (seniors and students) are available by calling 978-281-4433 or online at www.gloucesterstage.org.

The stained blue dress, the idiotic grand jury testimony about “that depends on what ‘is’ is, and the subsequent impeachment will be burned on this American generation’s collective consciousness forever. Bill Clinton blemished his eight years of prosperous leadership with a stupid affair that grabbed headlines for more than a year and ended up in his disgrace.

But what if Monica and Hillary had met before that fateful encounter between the thong-revealing intern and the president in a White House pantry? Might the whole thing have turned out differently?

That’s the premise behind “Hillary and Monica: The Winter of Her Discontent,” a play written and directed by Yvette Heyliger that runs through this weekend at the Gloucester Stage Company. Heidi Dallin plays the first lady, Jacqueline Kristel plays Monica, Vanessa Shaw plays the complicit secretary Betty Currie, and Jeff Pierce doubles both as the president (a cameo) and as a secret service agent.

“I was very intrigued by Hillary,” says Heyliger. “When I started to work on this, I saw her as a woman of vision and great strength. But like everyone, I believe, I also wanted to see a softer side. I wanted to see her break down and cry.

“The play is historical, but it’s also a fantasy. This never happened. But I think the most important things are to see Hillary as vulnerable, and to see Monica as a very young woman who is not on Hillary’s level.”

But Heyliger is quick to point out that “Bill has only a cameo appearance in this play, and it’s not a catfight between two women over a man. That’s boring. When it comes to that, it’s the one doing the cheating that needs to change.

“This play is a balanced portrayal; they both get their licks in. But I really wanted to emphasize how young Monica is — she’s really a little girl — and how she’s really not Hillary’s equal.”

Heyliger did extensive research for the play, which was work shopped in New York in 2001 and has been presented several times there at various theatres. This is the New England debut.

Heyliger says, “I’m drawn to difficult topics,” and her previous works bear this out. Her most recent play, “What Would Jesus Do?” deals with family, church and HIV/AIDS. Her previous “Autobiography of a Homegirl,” about race in America, won the 1996 NAACP Theatre Award for best playwright.

But “Hillary and Monica” is not history, it’s fiction.

“I didn’t delve into Monica’s past,” Heyliger says. “She was previously involved with a married man, but that’s not what I found interesting. I was very much affected by Hillary and Bill’s private life, about what went on behind closed doors. He did what he did: it’s not a crime, after all, to feel good. But when you learn about the history of first ladies, you see that there are a lot of women who were cheated on — Eleanor Roosevelt, Jacqueline Kennedy, and others — were very powerful and capable women.

“Power is a very strong aphrodisiac, and also America is so conflicted with powerful women. In a way this play is much more that Hillary’s story—I definitely did not want to do a documentary, but more of a what-if scenario—but it’s more like an ode to first ladies everywhere.”

Heidi Dallin plays the role of the first lady. Her feeling is not to act as an impersonator, but to “approach her as an actress, and to make the character that Yvette has created come to life. People are so fascinated with Hillary, with every little detail. She’s in the public eye, and she’s very smart.

“There is no middle ground with Hillary. People have very strong opinions about her. When I was auditioning for this part, I was not interested in doing something that was not flattering, that did not portray her as being intelligent. But saying that, she’s human, she laughs at herself, and she is vulnerable.

“This play shows a real woman,” says Dallin, “who’s balanced, aware of public affairs, and who loves her husband and her country desperately.”