Two compelling plays to see this month in Denver and Boulder
If the seduction-as-entrapment unfolding in the shadows at the start of "Stockade" rings a familiar bell about the abuses of power, it should.
If the cacophony of vying voices and damning accusations piercing the town hall meeting at the start of Act II of Henrik Ibsen's "An Enemy of the People" strikes a chord, it should as well.
In this election season, a theater company can take it easy on its audiences. (Witness the Arvada Center's knows-its-patrons-well production of the musical "Waitress.") Or a company can eschew beautiful escapism for something richer. Instead of veering around the roiling political moment, it can head into the thicket. Doing so with verve and wit has seldom prevented a show from being entertaining, or its brainy synonym, "engaging."
Two of the area's consistently compelling theater companies — Local Theater Company and the Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company — provide just that. Make that four theaters, if you count (and you should) Curious Theatre Company's production of the hilarious, potty-mouthed "POTUS Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive" (through Oct. 13) and the Denver Center Theatre Company's mounting of Shakespeare's classic of political machination, melancholy and misery, "Hamlet" (through Oct. 6).
"Stockade" — written by Andrew Rosendorf with Carlyn Aquiline — is receiving its world premiere at the Dairy Arts Center in Boulder. Inspired by the Broadway revival of "An Enemy of the People," Mark Ragan's pointed and fleet adaptation runs through Oct. 13 at the Savoy in the Curtis Park neighborhood.
Each production is directed with verve and no small amount of deftly placed humor. (This is especially notable in "Stockade" because of the deep ache the masquerading of self demanded of its LGBTQ+ characters.) Each benefits from the agile and nuanced performances of robust casts that feature some of the area's finest performers. And if you let it, each drama will prick moments of conscience, of recognition, about what it means to be a thoughtful citizen at a time when that trait feels at a premium.
"Stockade"
Early in "Stockade," gray-suited Cliff (Thadd Krueger) takes a seat on a park bench in Washington, D.C. It's night as he stares out, smoking. Soon a man sidles up to him, making amorous overtures that Cliff doesn't resist. Within moments, he wishes he had as the suitor reveals himself to work for the FBI and Cliff sees his career as a rocket scientist working for the government explode mid-flight. Set in the early 1950s, the play focuses on the Lavender Scare, the lesser-known but hulking sibling of post-World War II's Red Scare. It's directed with a fluid and elegant sense of the material's dark and light moods by Christy Montour-Larson.
Boulder-based Local Theater Company had produced Rosendorf's "Paper Cut," a work focused on a war vet returning from Afghanistan in 2021. (The Denver Center gave his video-store reminiscence, "One Shot," a staged reading last winter.) It, too, wrestled with military service, war and the muting of queer identity. Historically speaking, "Stockade" is a prequel to "Paper Cut": Its characters are living — and loving ‐— in the space of enforced silence prior to that codified in "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
That might sound dark; it often is. But Rosendorf and Aquiline (his longtime dramaturg, here his co-writer) find light, too, in the connections forged by Cliff, Kay (Lisa Hori-Garcia), Eddy (Rakeem Lawrence), Glenn (Jacob Sorling), Hugh (Alex J. Gould), and Billy during service to their country.
Simone St. John does double duty as Billy, who died in combat, and his sister Barb, who gathers the friends together on Fire Island. Wanting to honor her dead brother, Barb intends to publish the letters they all exchanged in a book. That Billy kept them comes as a shock to the friends. (The play's title refers to the brig that Hugh was imprisoned in after someone gave authorities his name.) Now their often-coded declarations of fondness and desire fill a satchel with evidence that could lead to their prosecution.
"The beautiful thing about writing and looking at the past is also thinking about how does the past reflect the present moment that we're in," Rosendorf said, during a video call with Aquiline. "So, we always were thinking about not only how are we telling the story that will ideally be honoring these ancestors — these queer ancestors that I stand on the shoulders of as a queer man — but also with how the way they were treated during the Lavender Scare is suddenly parallel to today."
During the years the play was in development, the creative duo has witnessed a slew of anti-LGBTQ+ bills proposed and passed in state legislatures (most targeting transgender citizens). While Rosendorf likes the heart to lead his work, he acknowledged the play's activist energy. "I would say that this play, more than any of my other plays, is more overtly a piece of advocacy," he said. "I mean, its ending, as I see it, as a call to action to all of us in the audience."
That ending sees one of the characters (no spoiler here) finding his voice, standing amid placard-carrying protesters. If it looks like the dawning of the gay rights movement but also our current moment, there's a reason.
"The one thing we both think reverberates strongly across the decades is that it always has to be today. It always has to be now," Aquiline said. "Now is always the right time to be audible and visible, to find your voice and find your light in order to push back against that repression and make the choices about your own life for yourself."
"An Enemy of the People"
The November run of "An Enemy of the People" at the Dairy is already sold out.
Fortunately, its October run is unfurling at the Savoy in Denver's Curtis Park neighborhood. And "unfurling" is an apt way to characterize what happens to Dr. Thomas Stockmann (Mark Collins), his wife, Katherine (Tammy Meneghini), and daughter Petra (Anastasia Davidson), once the good doctor discovers that the spa waters his town has recently become famous for are tainted with runoff from nearby tanneries. This data-driven news is sure to have repercussions.
His tippling father-in-law Kiil (Chris Kendall) made his fortune from one of those tanneries. Stockmann's brother Peter (Bill Hahn) has made quite the name for himself as mayor, thanks to the good fortunes of the town. The lefty newspaper has had an uptick in workers' interest because there is gainful employment at the baths. (None of the journalists — played well by Ben Griffin, Josh Hartwell and a ridiculously amusing Jim Hunt — can handle the truth.)
Even Thomas' recent rise in status has been fueled by his role as the chief medical officer of the baths. So, his news of "healing waters" awash in harmful bacteria is met with dismay and suspicion, denial and, over time, fury by civic leaders and businessmen, journalists and townspeople. The lone voice of kindness is that of a sea captain (Minh-Anh Day) who early on admits he doesn't pay much attention to current events or politics.
"I was blown backwards in my seat," Mark Ragan, managing director of the Boulder Ensemble, said about attending the lauded revival of "An Enemy of the People" on Broadway. Playwright Amy Herzog adapted the Ibsen play and Sam Gold directed it last spring.
Upon returning to Boulder, Ragan told artistic director Jessica Robblee (who directs of this production) that BETC had to do the Herzog-adapted drama. But Herzog wasn't ready to license her script. Set on programming the play, Ragan decided to take a crack at it.
While he had yet to write a play or adapt one, he has been a journalist — and a political one at that. "I covered the White House under Bush and Clinton, so politics and social commentary are very close to my heart," he said.
"But the real reason I wanted to do it is because it's a perfect reflection of our time," Ragan added. "And that, to me, is what is so surprising. It was written in 1882, and yet it could have been written yesterday. Just frighteningly similar. In the [show's] 'Playbill,' I ask, does human behavior ever really change?"
It's not the kind of question that one might want to luxuriate in — the waters team! — but it is one that theater can pose with grace and gravitas, even shrewdly — at just the right time.
Lisa Kennedy is a Denver-based freelance writer specializing in theater and film.
"Stockade": Written by Andrew Rosendorf with Carlyn Aquiline. Directed by Christy Montour-Larson. Featuring Alex J. Gould, Lisa Hori-Garcia, Thadd Krueger, Rakeem Lawrence, Jacob Sorling and Simone St. John. At the Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. Through Oct 13. For tickets and info: localtheaterco.org or 720-600-7082.
"An Enemy of the People": Written by Henrik Ibsen, adapted by Mark Ragan. Directed by Jessica Robblee. Featuring Mark Collins, Bill Hahn, Ben Griffin, Tammy Meneghini, Minh-Anh Day, Anastasia Davidson, Jim Hunt, Josh Hartwell and Penina Eisenberg. At the Savoy Denver, 2700 Arapahoe St. Through Oct. 13. For tickets and info: BETC.org or 303-351-2382.
