Plan-B's And the Banned Slammed On: Theater that can change your life

May 31, 10:28 AMSalt Lake City Theater ExaminerJenniffer Wardell

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Theater that takes a stand against censorship is usually intelligent, but it’s an extra gift when it’s laugh-out-loud-funny and genuinely thought-provoking.

“And the Banned Slammed On,” Plan-B’s fundraiser and one-night-only theatrical event on May 30, offered up five short plays commenting about different censorship issues that have cropped up in Utah over the last year. Each playwright had been given their idea the night before the event, and each play was written, cast, staged, and rehearsed in a single 24 hour period. The plays took either a direct or metaphorical look at the issues – the Barack Obama sock monkey, the shirtless missionary calendar, the smoking ban in private clubs, the moving of an “inappropriate” statue in Blanding, and the banning of a breastfeeding photo on Facebook – and were off and running.

All the playwrights, actors and directors clearly brought their A games, so the stars of the night had to shine especially bright. “Smoke Signals,” the play about the smoking ban showed off the hilariously lewd side of conservatism before delivering a surprisingly creepy punch about what happens when sensible people learn how to play the game too well. Though the censorship and movement of a Native American fertility statue (fill in the blanks) turned into the one truly serious play of the lot, “Sticks & Stones”, it was well-rounded, beautifully sad, and had no easy answers.

The best, though, was “Terms of Use,” Matthew Ivan Bennet’s play about the breast-feeding mother whose photo got banned on Facebook. It imagined the mother in the waiting room before she came to earth, and the events that sparked her to be so defiantly proud of her breasts. Actors Kirt Bateman, Anita Booher, and David Spencer had me in stitches the whole time (Christy Summerhays, who directed, also deserves a shout-out), and by the time it was over I found myself actually proud of a woman that I had barely given a thought to an hour before. That’s theater with some serious power, and if I hadn’t been there that night I would have missed it entirely.

I’m definitely not going to miss it next year.