Colorado is blessed to have a number of grassroots theater companies that not only produce theater on a dime, but take surprisingly adventurous chances in content. Troupes with the fewest resources and most to lose are often the ones most fearlessly (and perhaps foolhardily) offering up unproven new works you’d just never see staged otherwise.
True, what winds up on the stage is best-suited for the most forgiving and politically open-minded of theatergoers, but there is an undeniable charm in supporting imperfect, passionate, hit-and-sometimes-wildly-miss community theater.
Two current Colorado premieres are the deliciously titled political satire “Whacking the Turkey,” by Karla Jennings; and Stephen J. Miller’s issue-oriented comic fantasy, “Here Be Dragons.” What these walk-on-the-wild-side warehouse offerings lack in precision, they make up for in passion and attitude.
The scattered audiences who support these humble efforts are being rewarded with a communal kind of theater experience that can be satisfying in very different ways than the most professional of stagings.
“Whacking the Turkey” is being presented by And Toto Too Theatre Company, our only troupe dedicated exclusively to female playwrights. It imagines that “Bible Spice” (one of Sarah Palin’s most pointed nicknames) has won the presidency in an “American Idol”-like TV-audience vote.
With a most Palinesque actress named Sarah MacMillan leading the charge, this staging starts out as a fun flame-broiling of Palin’s presumed arrogant inadequacies. But it’s even more interesting as a pointed commentary on our failed electoral process, our moronic pop-cultural infatuation and the extreme dumbing-down of an America that hungers for a president who’s not so gosh-darned boring.
But the absence of Palin from the 2012 presidential race makes this new play feel already dated. The premise has only the staying power of a “Saturday Night Live” sketch, and its disintegration into an outrageous sci-fi conspiracy sucks the satiric credibility right out of it. Still, while MacMillan is no Tina Fey, she is a frightening force to be reckoned with as a president who invalidates all graduate degrees “because knowledge is elitism,” and mandates that every married woman give birth to an adopted frozen embryo.
There are some hardy punch lines, and MacMillan is a hoot, but she’d benefit from stronger direction, a more confident supporting cast and a quicker comic pace. Once the play’s political bias is established, “Turkey” becomes a bit of a hanging chad, with nowhere to go but further astray until it collapses in its own absurdity.
Dangerous Theatre’s “Here Be Dragons” is another fantastic comedy that takes an audacious approach to an ordinary and well-worn polemic.
Whether by wormhole or divine intervention, a flamboyant, atheist gay man named Danny (Kevin Leonard) is transported during a lightning storm from his Texas hotel room to the Michigan living room of his college lover, Tom (Ben Hauth), now a married fundamentalist Christian who is dedicated to transitioning men out of the gay lifestyle. His evangelical wife, Leslie (Kate Moreland), is convinced God has delivered Danny to them for his conversion, but just whose life needs to change most is up for debate.
And debate this play does, in frustratingly familiar ways, covering contradictions in Scripture, the origin of homosexuality and the dangers of treating homosexuality like an addiction.
While this mostly genial production avoids most clichàs about its evangelical characters, it revels in gay stereotypes and takes unnecessarily tasteless tangents. The actors are game but green, and they would need a much stronger directorial hand to fully flesh out these thinly drawn characters.
Give the play credit for not stacking the deck, but despite the provocative title — a mapmaking term describing dangerous or unexplored territories — this is anything but.
In the end, rather than charge into new territory, “Here Be Dragons” ultimately dives head-first into melodrama.
John Moore: 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com
Read short samples from both plays
The Denver Post regularly offers you the chance to read samples from original plays being performed in the area. and
“Whacking the Turkey” * 1/2 (out of four stars)
Comedy. Presented by And Toto Too Theatre Company at the Laundry on Lawrence, 2701 Lawrence St. Directed by Wade Wood. Through Nov. 12. 1 hour, 20 minutes. 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays. $20-$22 ($11 Wednesdays). 720-280-7058,
“Here Be Dragons” * 1/2 (out of four stars)
Comedy. Presented by Dangerous Theatre Company, 2620W. Second Ave. Directed by Eric Mindykowski. Through Nov. 12 (“Kama Sutra” plays late nights through Dec. 18). 70 minutes. 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Some nudity. $15-$20. 720-233-4703 or
