If the goal of political theater is to make you laugh, make you angry or move you to action, then, one national leader in the field posits, you’re not rattling your cage loudly enough.
“The sole purpose of any play should be to change the entire world. That’s it,” said Michael Gene Sullivan, head writer of the San Francisco Mime Troupe.
“Because if everyone in the world sees your play and understands it, then everything in the world should change. You shouldn’t shoot for anything less than that.”
More than a dozen politically themed plays are being staged this month to coincide with the Democratic National Convention here. But only a handful will seriously challenge the status quo in Iraq or the White House.
Most are content in trying to make audiences giggle at big, vulnerable targets like President Bush and the obvious absurdity of our sprawling electoral process. And most of those will come out with pie on their face. They use the word “skewer” in their promotional materials, but don’t have enough butane in them to light a Bic.
An exception should be the Mime Troupe’s “Red State,” a biting comedy set to live music. It imagines the presidential election coming down to one small Kansas town whose infrastructure is crumbling. Where the library is closed and the post office has no roof. So it holds the entire election hostage until it gets money for a new sidewalk.
“The political comedy that works best is a direct challenge to the audience in some way,” said, Sullivan, whose “Red State” plays twice Aug. 27 at the Bindery Space.
“Nobody likes to see some jerk stand on a stage and scream condescendingly at the crowd, and in a nutshell, that’s a lot of plays. And that stinks because you are not inspiring people.
“What I want to see is an audience that is so outraged, you have no choice but to laugh about it – and then go out and make the world a better place.”
The Mime Troupe has been invited here by Denver’s Countdown to Zero, which will be reprising its own “The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui” — in which Bertolt Brecht turns Hitler into a ’30s Chicago mob boss. Throughout the convention week, the Bindery will be open to artists and activists from all over the world for an artistic and political convergence.
A local company called Listen Productions will actually be at the convention, gathering material it will turn into a multimedia event in September called “DNC Mediamockracy.” It’ll be a serious exploration of the relationship between the media and our political system.
Theater without teeth
But this month, most audiences will be treated to sketch-themed “Daily Show” knockoffs. And where these amusements go wrong, Sullivan said, is their lack of venom and writing savvy.
“A lot of political theater actually ends up being vaudeville,” said Sullivan. “If you put George Bush on stage and threw a pie at him, that’s vaudeville — an old and respected tradition of theater — but it’s not a play. When you start pretending it is a play, you should be compared to Clifford Odetts and Bertolt Brecht; when really, here, you should be compared to W.C. Fields.”
It’s too easy to just present a leader as a jerk or a fool on a stage, Sullivan said, because you’re not teaching the audience anything.
“We do plays, and no matter what the circumstances, any play has to have a dramatic arc,” he said. “You still have to be dramatically engaging and tell a coherent, interesting story.”
The goals of punch-line and activist theater differ. One’s comedy, the other’s confrontation. One makes you laugh at what you already know to be true; the other wants to inform your political opinion.
Which is not to say audiences must change political opinions. There is a reason all these plays are being performed in a convention city bathed in blue, as opposed to St. Paul, Minn., host of the upcoming Republican confab. They lean left.
“I don’t pay much attention to corporate media now, but I am sure by now I would have heard if John McCain had renounced the Bush policy in Iraq,” said Jeff Key, a decorated, honorably discharged Marine who will perform the most incendiary offering of the month, “The Eyes of Babylon,” for Theatre Group at the New Denver Civic Theatre.
“That’s everything I need to know (about St. Paul). . . . It’s easier for me to be loving and forgiving from afar.”
Key was honorably discharged in 2003 after intentionally disclosing his homosexuality to his commanding officer, then to CNN’s Paula Zahn. Using the military’s “archaic and stupid” ban on gays, he said, was a way for him to get out of what he calls an illegal war, and “to avoid having to take innocent lives in exchange for corporate gain.”
Key has received much support from fellow soldiers, not for coming out but for speaking out against the war. “This Bush-McCain policy in Iraq is dangerous to my nation, and as a patriot and as a Marine, I cannot support it,” he said. “I don’t want to participate in that madness.”
But he’ll be just as happy if his play motivates his contrarians.
“If somebody came to my play and absolutely disagreed with me to the extent that they then went out and started to lend active support to some pro-war Iraq veterans, I would feel like I had achieved my purpose even more so than if somebody came in who was opposed to the war and said, ‘Yep, he was right’ and then did nothing,” he said. “Good theater gets people off their couches, and if there’s anything we need in America right now, it’s to get people away from the TV and doing something about what they believe in — whatever that is.”
An old political tradition
From the start of storytelling, Sullivan contends, the purpose of all art has been either to challenge or uphold the status quo. And that makes all art political. Examples of highly effective political theater can be traced to Aristophanes’ “Lysistrata” up through Brecht’s “Mother Courage” and, more recently, to Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America.”
Sullivan’s list would include popular 1960s Neil Simon plays like “The Odd Couple” and “Barefoot in the Park.”
“When you think about it, ‘The Odd Couple’ is about two guys who grew up in a society where the men are the powerful ones and divorce is unspoken of. And suddenly these two are openly speaking about divorce and the off-stage women are suddenly the powerful ones. The entire sexual power structure of the ’60s has been flipped, so in that way it’s challenging to the status quo.
“And today people say. ‘ “Barefoot in the Park” is such a cute story.’ Well, they meet in a park, and they want to have sex and get married all in one drunken evening. That’s a clear challenge to the status quo. So there really isn’t a nonpolitical kind of art.”
The most impactful political play in American history is probably “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” because it was actually seen by more people than who read the book, in the 1850s.
“That play was one of the key influences in the huge expansion of the abolitionist movement, and moving the country toward the Emancipation Proclamation and the Civil War,” Sullivan said.
The Mime Troupe was a leading force in free-speech court rulings of the 1960s. The entire company was charged with obscenity for presenting a play in a San Francisco park that talked about sexual politics and the Vietnam War. Their lawyer was Bill Graham, who rallied a little band to play its first concert under the name of The Grateful Dead as a legal fundraiser for the company. The troupe won, and so did Graham, who went on to become a rock impresario.
Take the subject seriously
The trick to successful political comedy, Sullivan said, is that you can’t make fun of the issue. Last year, the Mime Troupe did a play about the epidemic of cancer among children in southern Iraq brought about by the aerosoled, depleted uranium left behind by American bombs.
“There’s nothing funny about the subject or the victims, because it’s too horrific,” he said. “But what you can do is have your audience laugh at the truth of the farce of the situation. At those contractors taking all of that money to build nothing. Our job is to tell you facts that you don’t necessarily know . . . the comedy is just the delivery system.
“But part of it always should be about the audience uncomfortably laughing at themselves. Because if you agree that all of this is horribly wrong — shouldn’t you be out in the streets doing something about it?”
Political theater offerings during the Democratic National Convention
Here are some of the politically themed theatrical offerings being staged here specifically because of (or inspired by) the upcoming Democratic National Convention (listed by subjective order of significance):
“The Eyes of Babylon”: Honorably discharged Marine Jeff Key tells how he used the military’s ban on gays as a way out from a war in Iraq that he came to believe was morally corrupt. Written and performed by Key.
Aug. 21-Sept. 13. Theatre Group at the New Denver Civic Theatre, 721 Santa Fe Drive, 303-777-3292
“The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui”: Countdown to Zero stages Bertolt Brecht’s chilling parable about corruption and power, in which Hitler is reinvented as a ’30s Chicago gangster.
Aug. 26. The Bindery Space, 720 22nd St., 720-221-3821
“Red State”: San Francisco’s Tony Award-winning Mime Troupe comes to Denver to skewer the electoral process — in song and dance.
Aug. 27, 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. The Bindery Space, 720 22nd St., 720-221-3821.
“DNC Mediamockracy”: Listen Productions will be at the actual 2008 Democratic National Convention, and then turn its findings into a multimedia exploration of the relationship between our media and political system, and how it impacts the American people and our democracy.
Sept. 26-Oct. 25. Buntport Theater, 717 Lipan St. 720-290-1104
Boulder International Fringe Festival
A number of fest offerings will be political in nature, including the Samantha Giron Dance Project’s “Interrogations” (L.A.), and Once Upon a Mime’s “The President’s New Clothes” (Indiana). Go to for the complete lineup.
Aug. 14-25. Dairy Center for the Arts, 2590 Walnut St., and other venues around Boulder, 720-563-9950
“Lysistrata”: Perhaps the oldest political comedy in history tells of the Greek women who withheld sex from their husbands until they stopped fighting a senseless war.
Aug. 15-30. Theatre Company of Lafayette, 300 E. Simpson St.; 720-209-2154
“The Will Rogers Follies”: Boulder’s Dinner Theatre’s folksy musical about the humorist who was on call to advise kings and presidents but made his greatest impact on the common man. Each ever- changing performance integrates a Will Rogers of today commenting on that very day’s newspaper headlines.
Through Aug. 30. 5501 Arapahoe Ave., 303-449-6000
“Iraq War, The Musical!”: Musical-comedy satire about the obstacles the Bush administration overcame to get its war in Iraq going — and keep it going. Wacky musical high jinks.
Through Aug. 31. Bug Theatre, 3654 Navajo St., 303-780-7836.
“The Capitol Steps”: Good-natured, bipartisan political satire by an established touring company.
7:30 p.m. Aug. 23. Arvada Center, 6901 Wadsworth Blvd., 720-898-7200
“Home Away From”: In this new satire of Hollywood Republicans, an aging screenwriter and an aspiring actress rent rooms in a Los Angeles house where the boundaries between race, politics, Hollywood and reality blur.
Aug. 22-Sept. 27. Brooks Center Arts, First Divine Science Church, 1400 Williams St.
“Politix: Showbiz on the Powerbiz”: All the hot campaign issues of 2008 play out in sketches and songs. Written and directed by Denver’s Janet DeRuvo.
July 25-Aug. 23. Victorian Playhouse, 4201 Hooker St., 303-433-4343
“Allied Witches’ Presidential Election Convention 2008”: The Mercury Cafe’s resident theatrical witches poke their broomsticks in the satirical belly of our democratic process. Characters include everyone from Eleanor Roosevelt to Dick Cheney to Michelle Obama.
Aug. 22, 23 and 29. 2199 California St. 303-294-9258
“Convention”: A series of lowbrow satirical sketches about running a presidential campaign by some fairly novice improvisational comedians. The audience votes between the three buffoons up for their party’s nomination.
Through Aug. 26 (Tuesdays only). The Avenue Theater, 417 E. 17th Ave., 303-321-5925
Most recent theater openings
Through Aug. 18: Shadow’ Youth Theatre’s “Twilight’s Last Gleaming”
Shadow, Colorado’s only company that presents theater through a black lens, introduces theater to kids as a way to explore their roots and empower their future. Students are paid a stipend to undergo a five-week crash course, culminating in a professionally produced show of their conception. “Gleaming” is inspired by Anna Deavere Smith’s “Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992,” her dramatization of the civil unrest that followed the Rodney King trial in Los Angeles. The teens interviewed, wrote, workshopped and will perform their material, which has been honed into a three-act play with the help of Shadow playwright Hugo Jon Sayles and Brian Freeland, artistic director of Denver’s politically charged Countdown to Zero theater company.
1468 Dayton St., Aurora, 720-857-8000 or
Through Sept. 6: Buntport’s “Musketeer”
Denver’s only all-original theater company here explores the exhumation, transportation, and internment of Alexandre Dumas’ remains at the Panthéon of Paris in it’s own comically intellectual and inventive way.
717 Lipan St., Denver, 720-946-1388 or
Through Aug. 17: Augustana Arts’ “Titanic”
With music as beautiful as the voyage was tragic, “Titanic: attempts to capture the pathos of the night the famous ship went down. A full orchestra and more than 40 actors bring the passengers and crew to life as elation turns to disbelief, then despair, then … hope. Broadway staging won five Tonys, including best musical.
At the Lakewood Cultural Center, 470 S. Allison Parkway, 303-987-7845 or
Friday and Saturday only: Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center’s “Defending the Caveman”
The longest running solo play in Broadway history, starring Colorado’s own Cody Lyman, returns to Colorado Springs for a final engagement of three performances. This comedy about the sexes played on Broadway for two years – more than 700 performances – and how noe been perormed in more than 30 countries in more than 20 languages. It’s an observational monologue about the ways men and women relate.
30 W. Dale St., Colorado Springs, 719-634-5583 or
Aug. 11-16: Bas Bleu’s “Duet for One”
The award-winning British play by Tom Kempinski about a world-famous concert violinist named Stephanie Anderson who is suddenly struck with multiple sclerosis. The story is loosely based on the life of cellist Jacqueline du Pré, who was diagnosed with MS, and her husband, conductor Daniel Barenboim. Starring Wendy Ishii and Jonathan Farwell.
401 Pine St., Fort Collins, 970-498-8949 or
