By Joel Applegate
It’s 1945 and the new black-and-white TVs are the only things that aren’t segregated in Kallisti Theatre Company’s The Secret Son of Hitler, now causing audiences to convulse with laughter at the Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival. The inspiration for the play, according to playwright Elise C. Hanson-Barnett, was a joke about Hitler’s mustache. In a few weeks of writing, Hanson—with some jokes peppered in by Justin D. Bradley–had a fully-formed romp.
The play’s premise is that Senator Donald Dinkle (Chris Harvey) is inviting the First Family, Harry and Bess Truman (played by Andrew Bramble and Lisa N. Thurman), along with their daughter Margaret (Madeline Thatcher), and Marget’s new boyfriend (played by Bradley), to a dinner party that does indeed go “woefully off the rails”, just as the Senator feared it would.
Margaret Truman was famously independent and Thatcher’s over-the-top rendition (“it’s not Maggie, it’s MARGARET!”) is a self-parody highlighted by a great singing voice, which is fitting since the actual Margaret did sing opera for a number of years before turning to mystery writing. The problem—and the conflict—comes when her boyfriend is revealed to be Howard Hitler, der Fuehrer’s secret son, bearing the iconic mustache. (“It’s a Howard-‘stache now!”)
The Secret Son of Hitler is the Festival’s most Brechtian confection. Self-referencing asides to the audience punctuate a rattling fast script that is both goofy and incisive. The references to the Current Occupant and his supporters are packed into every minute. The Senator declares that “Fundamentalism is the only philosophy for a true American”, and Bess Truman posits, “Women? With opinions? Oh, no, no, no”. It’s Trumpism vis-à-vis the 1940s. It’s as head on as a loony bus crash, the next major plot point, prominently featuring Chris Taylor in the guise of our poetic bus driver Byron Shelley (yes, really), who literally crashes the Senator’s party with a busload of misfits.
Declaring the Age of Intellectualism to be over, the enthusiastic cast gives us so much to like here. The Secret Son of Hitler is packed full of satirical grenades; a cat named Snowball not getting grabbed, “boldly uneducated” masses, Kentucky Baby Bourbon, children in cages, and more all served with a dash of seminal 20th century absurdist theatre. You may have to see this show twice to catch it all.
Kallisti Theatre Company’s The Secret Son of Hitler resonates with similarities in conservative cultures past and present. Frenzied nationalism (“all Nationalists are dangerous, but most are just lazy”), a whole cast sans pants, and an old Noël Coward classic sardonically repurposed in a manner that would have made Monty Python proud. The pot is boiling: is this the country we recognize?
One question remains: Where does one find Confederate flag-themed tighty-whitey briefs?
Kallisti Theatre Company presents The Secret Son of Hitler By Elise C. Hanson-Barnett and Justin D. Bradley
Wasatch Theatre Company at the Gateway, 124 400 W, Salt Lake City, UT 84101
Box Office Location at the Gateway: 110 S Rio Grande St. Salt Lake City, UT 84101Aug 9 7:30 PM, Aug 11 4:30 PM, Aug 12 6:00 PM
Wasatch Theatre Company at the Gateway, 124 400 W, Salt Lake City, UT 84101
Box Office Location at the Gateway: 110 S Rio Grande St. Salt Lake City, UT 84101
$5 for Festival admission. $10 for admission to show
Box Office Coordinator, Melissa Salguero: gslfboxofficestaff@gmail.com
The Secret Son of Hitler Facebook Event
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