'Red State' takes Mime Troupe to Kansas for election satire

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Velina Brown plays Miss Rosa, Noah James Butler plays Mayor Robert R. Roberts, and Lizzie Calogero plays Betty as the San Francisco Mime Troupe rehearses "Red State" on Saturday, June 21, 2008, in San Francisco. "Red State" is a political satire that makes up the annual summer play by the mime troupe. (Norbert von der Groeben)

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At a time when the presidential election process is looking more like an unsavory blend of "American Idol" and a rotten-tomato fight, those in the know leave the election comedy to the pros — the candidates themselves.

Candidates get increasingly funny, so writers go after the tragicomedy — the plight of the average guys who find themselves caught between Iraq and a hard place.

"The tough part with the Mime Troupe is to try to write about serious things in a comic way," says Michael Gene Sullivan, veteran head writer for the San Francisco Mime Troupe, whose "Red State," the company's summer satire, opens this afternoon in San Francisco. "It's been very difficult with this administration, because they themselves are so ridiculous, and what they do often is so frighteningly farcical."

And the current campaign hasn't exactly been a Boy Scout jamboree of clear political thought, statesmanship and selfless acts performed for the common good. It's been more a matter of spin, posturing and currying favor of those who can help the candidates most.

So what Sullivan has done is put a sort of "Mouse That Roared" twist on the show that will tour through Northern California this summer. The troupe tells its story from the viewpoint of the politically helpless, the faithful lunch-bucket set that still believes what it heard in civics class and is convinced it will all turn out all right, despite massive evidence to the contrary.

Those gathered for today's traditional Independence Day opening at Dolores Park will be transported to tiny Bluebird, Kan., a town that has always voted for small government, and found itself getting an increasingly smaller piece of the federal pie.

Citizens of Bluebird patriotically stood by their government as their city lost benefits and jobs and corporations got rich while the working class found it ever more difficult to make ends meet. They watched local factories close as jobs were shipped overseas, and saw their town face failing businesses, growing poverty and a nagging feeling that something isn't right.

Bluebirdians are generally stoic in their invisibility, but they suddenly find themselves the center of national attention when it's discovered that the vote in the Electoral College is tied and the results come down to a single district — theirs — which, because of a faulty voting machine, didn't have any of its votes reported.

Bluebird rapidly discovers that there might be an advantage to not being in a hurry to stage a re-vote.

"The tiny, dying town suddenly has leverage and finds out it may have the power to get some new sidewalks, new jobs, and a share of the tax dollars that have been taken from them and given to others," Sullivan says.

As he was writing the play, Sullivan says he reread, then watched, "The Grapes of Wrath." He was also inspired by "The Wizard of Oz," which became a film about the same time as "Grapes."

"The inspiration for the script was 'Grapes of Wrath,'" he says. "They ('Grapes' and 'Oz') both take place in the same neck of the woods and with the same issues."

Since he had to produce the script before the presidential primaries were over, Sullivan kept clear of discussing particular candidates (as he wrote the bulk of the script, he believed John McCain and Hillary Clinton would be representing their parties). "So I didn't want to write something and have it be wrong, and I didn't want to be behind the curve."

Above all, Sullivan was determined not to be condescending to Kansas. Often, particularly in the Bay Area, people look at the Midwest as backward, he says. But the state used to be the most progressive in the Union, and for the purpose of the story, Bluebird used to be a big union town before the factories put the labor organizations out of business.

Sullivan, who has been head writer for the Mime Troupe since 2000, says scripts the company produces are collaborative efforts, due to the size of the group and its budget. "One of the benefits is not having a million dollars at our fingertips to bring in big-name writers and directors," he says. "We have to be resourceful. We collaborate here, so everyone has a chance to test the limits of their talent."

"Red State" will be performed primarily on weekends throughout Northern California, from Humboldt County to Santa Cruz County, through Sept. 28. Performances are free, with rare exceptions. For more information and a complete schedule, contact 415-285-1717 or www.sfmt.org.

Reach Pat Craig at pcraig@bayareanewsgroup.com.