:: Diary of an Aging Protester ::

:: 6.02.2003 ::

Wigfield
I went to see Wigfield with Bryan on Saturday night. I met Bryan at one of the protests right before the war started. He has a fabulous Chihuahua named Margo who is a real darling. After the show, we went back to his place and Margo was jumping and barking all over the place but she only weighs 4 pounds. Then she stuck her head in my purse and turned my phone on. When I got home, I had this 2 minute message of a conversation between me, Bryan, and Kyle (Brian's b.f.). I guess she started my voice mail somehow. Weird and disturbing.

In any case, I thought Wigfield was really good. We sat in the front row which was okay except when Steve Colbert sat in front of us on a stool and we had to bend our necks back really far. The play came out of a book that the three co-wrote together about a mythical town called Wigfield that is about to be destroyed when the state decides to destroy the dam in order to get the salmon run flowing again. A writer goes out to capture small town life before it's extinguished and discovers a cast of characters that puts David Lynch's Twin Peaks to shame in terms of sordid, bizarre, and politically incorrect portrayals of white trash. Amy Sedaris, Paul Dinello, and Stephen Colbert each take several different characters and the play is about a play that the writer is forced to write in order for the publishing co. to make more than enough money via a two for one deal. Because the play is occuring while in progress, the actors read from scripts and don't dress up in character but there is a changing set of photographs via a slide show that act as hilarious props to the already funny character portrayals. The play ends with a video re-enactment that the writer has produced of the dam exploding at a last bash party that the whole town celebrates.

What I liked most about the play was its undercutting of our current romance with small town life found in many tv shows, films, and radio shows like Lake Woebegone. Shows like the Gilmore Girls reveal how you can have all the excitement of the city without the ugliness, the violence, and scruffiness that comes with. The town in GG is all about people who've made it but opt for slowing down and getting away from city life and its various problems. The grossly inaccurate attempt to draw out the wonders of the small town community through various festivals, marathons, town hall meetings, etc. does not really get at the poverty, desperation, and plight of the rural working-class. Although Wigfield is not about making social statements at all, it does seem to take to bat Lake Wobegonitis's bourgeous attempt to gloss over the difficulties of making a living or of being different in small communities. with characters like Raven the transvestite stripper or Julian Childs, the fey man who does theatrical productions using rabbits. Of course, one can read the show as taking a potshot at the trashy white working-class who inhabit Wigfield as well--an easy target.

After the show, Bryan bought a copy of the book and we waited on line to get it signed by the three writers/performers. as we got closer to them, I started feeling really nervous and tried to stand as far away as possible from them when Bryan had them sign the book. Just as we were walking away from them, Amy S. looked at me and said, Wow, what a pretty dress. I must have blushed, I'm sure, and just smiled and said, thanks. Then Bryan got all chatty with her and she was talking to us and honestly I didn't hear a thing she said because my mind was buzzing that she'd complimented me. Wow!
:: posted by Doreen on 3:20 PM [+] ::
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