Turn on the news on any given day and you’re likely to hear about deaths by gun violence.
Roustabouts Theatre Playwright Will Cooper noted this phenomenon four years ago, and wrote a play about it – “gUnTOPIA” – which was shut down on opening night due to COVID.
Now it’s back, and playing through April 2 at Moxie Theatre. This version is updated and co-directed by the mother-and-daughter team of Rosina Reynolds and Kate Rose Reynolds.
“gUnTOPIA” is satire. It’s funny, thought-provoking, and extremely strange, and it needs to be seen.
It’s about the Nelson family: Harry (Phil Johnson), his wife Mary (Kalie Karel) and their kids June (Elena Bertacchi) and Bobby (Eben Rosenzweig).
The Nelsons live in a place where everyone carries a firearm and no one thinks twice about pulling the trigger.
Did I say this was funny? Well, it provokes at least occasional nervous laughter.
It starts off with a bang (sorry, bad pun), when Bobby pulls his gun on sister June and shoots her. Dead.
When dad Harry sees June on the floor, he says with a rueful smile, “Goodbye, sweetheart. Daddy loves you.”
Then he goes off to find Detective Rheingold (Walter Murray), to report the death.
When Harry and Mary decide to replace June, they talk to Consuela (Veronica Burgess), proprietor of the local home for homeless children. Consuela suggests Alice, a girl about June’s age who has proved difficult to place.
Alice seems not to be (Elena Bertacchi) interested in guns, to the point that Consuela has tried five times without success to place her. But she is sent to the Nelson family for another try.
But what do you do when you’re gun-loving Americans stuck with a ballistophobe?
Bravo to all the excellent cast members, and to Tony Cucuzzella (set design), Michelle Miles (lighting design), Jon Fredette (sound design), Dan R. Cheatham II (Armorer), Alyssa Kane (props), Maya Aizenman (stage manager) and Nathan Waits (set construction).
How can this end? Well, you’ll have to go to Moxie and find out. And do go. You’ve never seen anything like this, I can guarantee that.
The details
“gUnTOPIA” plays through April 2, 2023 at Moxie Theatre, 6663 El Cajon Blvd., Suite N.
Shows Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m.; matinees Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. Post-show talkbacks are scheduled for each performance.
Tickets: theroustabouts.org/guntopiatickets
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