A WORLD WHERE EVERYONE IS ARMED
DARK SATIRE ‘GUNTOPIA’ IS SET IN A 1950S-STYLE ENVIRONMENT WHERE EVEN THE KIDS CARRY WEAPONS
As if 2020 wasn’t grim enough, bringing with it the arrival of the stillongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it was also a year that saw record gun-related deaths in America. According to the Centers for Disease Control, more than 45,000 people in the U.S. died in 2020 from injuries related to guns.
In March of that year, The Roustabouts Theatre Co. opened its production of playwright Will Cooper’s satiric “gUnTOPIA,” directed by Rosina Reynolds and starring Phil Johnson. The show’s run lasted one night. Its engagement was waylaid by the national lockdown that shuttered all arts venues nationwide overnight.
Three years later practically to the day, “gUnTOPIA” is having a “second world premiere,” again at Moxie Theatre in Rolando and again with Johnson in the role of the play’s father-knows-best, Harry Nelson. Reynolds is also back to direct, this time in collaboration with her daughter, Kate Rose Reynolds. The only 2020 cast member to return, besides Johnson, is Walter Murray.
Cooper’s script poses the question of what would it be like in the white-picket-fence world of the Nelson family and their neighbors if everyone was armed.
“We live already in this time that feels very strange,” said co-director Kate Rose Reynolds, “where we have all of these gun deaths and people are continuing to push for more gun rights, and all we tend to get out of these incidents is ‘thoughts and prayers.’ We feel incredibly emotionally distant. The idea of the play is people are handling guns from the time they were born.
“This play allows us to see an extreme reflection of this world, to navigate these topics and have conversations about it. Something like “gUnTOPIA.’ by taking it just a hair further than we already are helps us develop a vocabulary for speaking about the dehumanization of the process,” she said.
Reynolds says that “in a horrifying way” the scenario satirized by Cooper feels more possible than it
did even three years ago.
“He’s taking this utopia that the NRA and large portions of the United States think is the end goal — everyone being armed — and asking, ‘If we do that, what is the cost? What does it mean?’ ” she said.
As with the 2020 production of “gUnTOPIA,” an armorer is part of the crew, there to ensure that the non-firing replicas of guns handled by the cast are safe for all. That’s where Dan Cheatham comes in.
“I can’t fathom doing a production like this without someone of his expertise,” said Reynolds. “What Dan has done is come in and not just instructed us on proper gun handling but also on all of the things that are going to keep everyone safe: Where is the gun pointing at all times? How do we not put it in a position where the audience feels threatened?”
Reynolds is pleased to be directing “gUnTOPIA” with her mother. Mother and daughter co-starred last year in the Roustabouts Theatre Co. staging of the dark drama “Iron” and both took home awards for their performances on Feb. 27 at the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle’s 2022 Craig Noel Awards.
“We have a little bit of a shorthand that we can fall into that helps facilitate things,” Reynolds said. “She was one of my biggest teachers in life. It makes it very easy because we’re almost always looking at things the same way.
“My hope is that it presents a very coherent, united directing front for the actors because we are so very much aligned with each other.”