The credits for The Thrilling Adventures of Anthrax Boy list Joel Harmon and Melanie Moseley as the authors of the play. This is somewhat misleading, however, since Moseley and Harmon are the local talent behind Promethean Theatre, the company staging Anthrax Boy at the Bug. The script, like the play, is highly experimental in nature, and although the concept and scenario were developed at the University of Oregon as a reaction to the Springfield school shootings, revision of the characters and dialogues can be made at the discretion of the acting company.

Being that Anthrax Boy is a play which aims to make an ongoing social statement about violence perpetrated by children, and being that the causes and societal influences behind this type of violence change over time, it stands to reason that the perspective from which such acts are viewed is an evolution and that expres-sive investigation from one performance to the next is a perfect application of form fitting function within the field of literary art.

This is a lofty endeavor to be sure, and it is one which has been well-executed by the Promethean Theatre and company. Serious subject matter aside, this is a bright and witty dark comedy which gives the viewer's mind not a moment's rest.

The plot runs parallel to the now common occurrence of school violence, except that rather than a gun, knife, pipe bombs or other bloody weapons of destruction, Anthrax Boy uses the deadly anthrax virus to off his fellow adolescents and avenge his misunderstood pain. The satirical comedy comes in the form of political reaction to the act.

Controversy regarding the safe and responsible use of anthrax to protect homeowners and law-abiding citizens vs. the easy availability and lethal potential for misuse quickly overwhelms the stage. The media goes into a frenzy and capital-izes on every aspect of the crime, buying air time with every tragic replay. Two local politicians repaint their masks and don their hindsight to show America where it went wrong with this boy and to promise corrections just as soon as they are elected to office. The President is por-trayed as an animatronic puppet who gives stock speeches in response to such acts, merely changing the names of the victims with every new set of killings.

In my favorite scene in the play, Big Brother steps in and demands that potential parents pass a test. The audience is treated to a ‘video' in which both the right and wrong methods of parenting are demonstrated. The staging of this instructional video keeps the audience entirely in stitches, but also highlights the absurd desire for homogenesis behind such notions as governmentally dispensed parenting lessons.

Mood and dialogue shifts throughout the piece keep the audience intensely involved in the multitudes of social statements being made during the play. From dark and foreboding to hilarious and satirical, the script works through the same cycles of denial, disbelief, and mourning we all are privy to when real killings of real children occur.

There are truly too many funny lines and deeper meanings to do adequate justice to the piece in this small space. The same is true for the professional level of execution of characters, action and timing shown by the members of Promethean Theatre in this production. And, did I mention the resonant and deeply meaningful vocals?

Don't let the subject matter daunt you. I highly recommend The Thrilling Adventures of Anthrax Boy. You will laugh, you'll shake your head, you'll be struck by some revelation or parallel you never thought of before. A

FAIRY GODMOTHERS, PSYCHIC FRIENDS
AND OTHER MYTH INFORMATION
The Acoma Center
1080 Acoma, Denver
July 21-23

Fairy Godmothers, Psychic Friends And Other Myth Information was too enticing a title to pass up. The one woman show, created by and starring Lori Hamilton made the Denver leg of its national tour at the Acoma Center this past weekend. Hamilton, an actress/writer/dancer who penned the script herself, claims Julliard and The New England Conservatory among her educational credits. And boy, I gotta tell you, the girl could dance at least the lit-tle bit of dancing she did in the show seemed great and all. And this girl could sing too, I mean I specifically remember her singing although I can't remember what she sang. And I think she must have been one heck of an actress, because the script was so weak that I couldn't really tell if she could act ... and so it stands to reason that she must be good because as I always say, writers can rarely act, and actors/actresses generally don't make for good writers.

She gave it a good shot, though. The script was a little experimental with its use of a giant TV screen for comic narra-tion and to clue the audience into the ridiculous interventions of God a.k.a. the Fairy Godmother in the protagonist's life. The characters were at least identifiable, and some were even mildly funny. For example, there was the mother who lis-tened to polka music and spoke in that Meeannasooohda (Minnesota) accent we've all come to know and love. But few of the other characters carried enough depth to hold much interest or wield much wit.

And then there was the little problem with method of exposition. Hamilton used two tried and truly wrong methods of exposition, and she used them at length: exposition via lengthy, one-sided chatty telephone conversations, or worse yet exposition via speaking out loud while writing dear diary both a clear mark of amateur writing and lack of skill. It is a shame that Lori Hamilton chose to pen a sophomorically flat script with which to showcase her many other talents rather than find a script that might have magnified her lofty credentials.