One of the most exciting things to happen recently in British theatre has been the development of tribunal plays, based on verbatim testimony, at London’s Tricycle from 1994 to 2012. Now Nicolas Kent, who did so much to pioneer the form, has resurrected it to air the US Senate’s confirmation hearings of four of Donald Trump’s key political appointees. The result, jointly presented by the National Theatre and New York’s Public Theater, was given a one-night rehearsed reading that left me torn between admiration for the American democratic process and despair at the fitness for office of the candidates themselves.

What happens is that the four nominees are quizzed by a committee comprising senators from both parties. Rex Tillerson, the future secretary of state, is relentlessly evasive about the opposition of ExxonMobil, of which he was formerly CEO, to economic sanctions against Putin’s Russia. Tom Price, bidding to be secretary of health and human services, is even more tight-lipped about his profitable share dealings in pharmaceutical companies.

Scott Pruitt, meanwhile, can hardly deny that he has been involved in countless lawsuits against the Environmental Protection Agency of which he seeks to be administrator. But the biggest fish, in some ways, is Jeff Sessions, whose suitability to be an objective attorney general is put into serious doubt both by his voting record and his partisan involvement in Trump’s campaign.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Nicolas Kent (left) directs Michael Landes and Daniel Betts in All the President’s Men? Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian

Listening to the hearings, we obviously have the benefit of hindsight. We now know that Sessions has been accused by Democrats of lying under oath in claiming he had no meetings with Russian officials during the campaign: in fact, he twice met with the ambassador, Sergei Kislyak. Even without the known facts, the way Sessions parades every member of his family in front of the committee grates on the nerves.

But two things, aside from the dubious nature of the nominees, struck me forcibly. One was the loquacity of many of the senators who, by their long-windedness, often let the candidates off the hook: a colleague assures me the same thing often happens in our own select committees. The other was that the real stars are those whose names we know well.

Elizabeth Warren (Sinéad Cusack) brilliantly skewers Price by asking him whether he had introduced bills helpful to companies in which he had bought stock. Bernie Sanders (Phil Davis) similarly nails Pruitt by asking direct questions such as “Why is the climate changing?” And Dianne Feinstein (Siân Phillips) devastatingly asks whether Sessions will be an independent attorney general rather than an arm of the White House.

Running at three hours, the evening would benefit from further editing. But, as directed by Kent, it has many benefits. It shows there is much to be said, in a democracy, for hearings into public appointments. It reminds us of the fallibility of Trump’s judgment.

It also confirms that theatre has the unique capacity to reveal politics in action. I just wish that these hearings, tightened and trimmed, could get more than a one-night stand in the West End.

• At the Public Theater, New York, on 11 May.