Is there such as thing as a “serious” comedy? The phrase itself is an oxymoron of sorts. And yet there is a certain validity to the concept mostly from writers of literature, and definitely in the work of playwrights.
Think Eugene Ionesco, Jean Genet, Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, Edward Albee, and, yes, even Neil Simon, America’s king of comedy. Most all were serious writers, but became famous for their absurdist comedy plays, except for Simon. He was in a class by himself; a comedy playwrighting genius who made the human condition, warts and all, a “serious” subject for his style of comedy.
It was the biting, bittersweet absurdist methods and way of alerting us that a world gone madly astray from society’s norms has made their voices important as chroniclers and observers that were heard for more than 70 years.
Dezart Performs, the acting company now based in downtown Palm Springs, began its professional theatrical existence ten years ago in the Art Gallery section of Palm Springs then located on Cherokee street off Highway 111. Hence the attention-grabbing theatre company name: “Dezart Performs”.
The highly respected theatre company co-founded by producing artistic director Michael Shaw, launched its eleventh season last week with the poignant, comedy-drama “Church & State, written by award-winning playwright and TV writer and director Jason Odell Williams.
These are fractious times in America, especially since the country is mired in a never-ending political cycle of deep and sharp divisions concerning the United States political system in an Election cycle year.
“Church & State”, now on stage at the Pearl McManus theatre, in downtown Palm Springs, explores the hot button topics and
