The lights dim at the Bartell Theatre on a Wednesday evening, and a hush falls over an audience that includes state legislators, university professors, and a table of off-duty nurses. What follows is ninety minutes of political satire so precisely targeted that the laughter occasionally sounds like gasping.
The New Satirists
Madison has always been a political town, but its theater scene has traditionally leaned toward the earnest — issue plays, community dialogues, staged readings of important texts. The new wave is different. Companies like Glass Jaw Theatre and The Uncommons are producing original works that use comedy as a scalpel.
Writing the Present
Playwright Jordan Reeves, whose piece The Filibuster Variations became a regional sensation last fall, describes the creative process as "writing the newspaper before it's printed."
"Satire only works if it arrives before the audience has made up its mind," Reeves says. "Too early and it's prophecy. Too late and it's commentary. The sweet spot is right now."
Beyond Madison
The success of Madison's satirical theater movement has sparked interest from Chicago and Minneapolis producers, signaling that the Midwest's political stage may be expanding.
