BTG messes with Texas
by Christopher Key
You gotta love Bellingham Theatre Guild director Mish
Kriz. None of these smarmy, seven-hanky
Christmas shows for her. She not only
declares war on Christmas, she declares war on Texas, the National Rifle
Association, feral sheep, community theatre Christmas shows and political correctness. And wins!
Let’s be honest here.
A Tuna Christmas is not high
theatrical art. It’s just redneck humor
taken to its illogical extreme and it’s a helluva lot of fun. Especially with the holiday season bearing
down on us like a Dallas Cowboys linebacker.
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| Photo credit - David Cohn |
This is one of those shows actors love because they get to
play multiple parts, dress in drag and can’t possibly go too far over the
top. Les Campbell and John Gonzales get
to play the entire population of Tuna, Texas, male, female and otherwise and
they obviously have the time of their lives doing it. It shows because they take the audience right
along with them into tinfoil-hat territory.
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| Photo credit - David Cohn |
Kriz couldn’t have chosen two better actors to insult
everyone who has ever lived below the Mason-Dixon line. Campbell has appeared onstage wearing nothing
but a guitar. Gonzales once came to a
Halloween party dressed as Sarah Palin and looked better than the real
thing. QED.
The real heroes of this show, however, are the dressers,
those unsung backstage heroes who manage enough costume changes to make Dolly
Parton blanch. They are Christy Ham,
Kerry Bates, Jillian Dodson and Sue Dodson.
They get a bow at the end and they deserve your applause.
Of course, the costumer who made them all crazy is Genny Cohn. She obviously knows her redneck stuff and
this show is heavily dependent on camo-dressed gun shop owners and flouncy
waitresses.
Her hubby, David, designed the clever set which includes a
flying-saucer abduction scene that is worth the price of admission all by
itself.
There is enough country-themed Christmas music to fill a
ten-gallon hat with barf, enough tasteless immigrant jokes to please Donald
Trump and enough liberal snobbery to make every Bellingham resident proud. What’s not to like?
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| Photo credit - David Cohn |
A Tuna Christmas
plays November 27 – December 13 at the BTG Playhouse, 1600 H Street. The ticket office is open Tuesday – Saturday 1:00
to 6:00 p.m. at (360) 733-1811.
You know what worries me?
John Gonzales looks pretty damn hot as a waitress.
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