The Lost Art of Lampoonery

If you ask us, healthful satire is a waning art in modern day America. Blame the smiting gods of political correctness or the lack of critical thinking fostered in today’s public schools. Whatever the reason, revisiting satirical classics is bound to remind us why the ancient form of fun-making is worth taking so seriously. Theater of Yugen gives us just that opportunity with Sorya! A Candid Dispute, its annual series of plays in Japan’s farcical Kyogen style. As if to prove that good satire strikes universal chords no matter whose culture it’s lambasting, this year’s program pairs the centuries-old Kyogen favorite A Religious Dispute with an adaptation of Voltaire’s Candide by Jubilith Moore. The first follows two traveling priests whose attempts to convert one another to their respective sects come to blows. The second pokes Enlightenment-inspired holes in the persistent optimism of the witless Candide, out to prove that we live in the “best of all possible worlds” despite multiple floggings, almost drowning and nearly starving to death in Act I alone.
March 12-15, 2008