What better play to see than one that people have tried to shut down? “Fascism! The Musical” is showing now through Sunday at the Buchanan Center for Performing Arts and will have theater-goers laughing even as they are confronted with statements of society’s flaws.
“Fascism!” is a satirical protest comedy in the tradition of ‘60s counter-culture plays such as “Hair,” going back even to the outrageous comedies of ancient Greece. The story kicks off with a strike by the women of Wolf News, a 24-hour fake news channel, who refuse to work until they’re allowed to run real news.
“We wanted to call it ‘A Funny Thing Happened on The Way to Plutocracy,’ but that was a little too long,” UW professor and playwright, William Missouri Downs said. “We’re using the idea of fascism in its economic sense, and that is when the government creates laws with the help and advice of huge corporations, that benefit corporations.”
Downs collaborated with Sean Stone, UW lecturer and composer, to create “Fascism!” The two previously worked together on another production, “Angry Psycho Princesses,” all about Disney princesses gone wrong and the brittle standards of fairy-tale lives. The two have now upped the ante with a more political theme.
“The conversations that Protest Theatre facilitates are the ones that resonate most in society, and for that reason they are the plays that are remembered,” Stone said. “This is a time for theatre to be an instrument of protest.”
The musical, unapologetically, makes fun of a wide range of ideas, attitudes and institutions in today’s culture, especially political correctness and the rise of “the Corporate States of America.” Along with these topics will be guns on campus, trickle-down economics, Ayn Rand, a polka about socialism and many more issues as musical numbers, all introduced by an opening song titled “Trigger Warnings.”
“Some people are going to love it, some people are going to laugh their asses off, some people are going to get up and walk out,” Downs said.
One of the play’s primary goals is to cross lines and spark conversations, in contrast to the tendency of many people to double down on what they already think within comfortable echo chambers.
“Look at Dennis Prager on campus—that’s what a campus is for,” he said. “Yes, protest. The silent protest was great. Have a protest, but don’t shout people down. Don’t say, ‘you can’t say that.’”
“Fascism!” is showing Tuesday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2:00 p.m. The play lasts about two hours with an intermission between the two acts.
Tickets are on sale now at the Performing Arts box office, the Wyoming Union information desk, by phone at (307) 766-6666 and online at uwyo.edu/finearts.
