Laughter is contagious in 'Unnecessary Farce'

In a cheap motel room, an embezzling mayor is supposed to meet with his accountant, while in the room next door, two undercover cops wait to catch the meeting on videotape. But there’s some confusion as to who is in which room, who’s being videotaped, who’s taken the money, who’s hired the hit man, and why the accountant keeps undressing.

It’s not actual news, but what is, is that the story, “Unnecessary Farce,” a play written by Paul Slade Smith, will be performed at the R.G. Brown Theater on the UW-Platteville Baraboo Sauk County campus from April 20-23.

Directed by Damian Ernest, it’s sure to provide laughs.

“It’ll be a chance for everyone – actors and audience – to let their hair down and simply enjoy a genuine knockabout farce,” said Ernest, the school’s associate professor of theater and communication.

The show runs Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, April 20-22, at 7:30 p.m. at the theatre. It also runs on Sunday, April 23, at 2 p.m. Tickets are $12 for adults and $5 for students. The show is recommended for ages 13 and older.

Enjoyment, it seems, is what Baraboobians want, particularly after the long winter and longer COVID-19 pandemic that significantly curtailed performing arts in Baraboo and surrounding areas.

“We’re all ready for something lighthearted and silly,” said Sarah Horowitz, one of the actors in the production. Laughter, the local physician thinks, can, indeed, be the best medicine. “The opportunity to feel something or to share laughter with people around you is something that creates connections and builds a strong community.”

Iveta Petkova-Ball, a fellow actor and para-professional for the Waunakee School District, agrees.

“Our Baraboo community loves the arts. It is a wonderful, cultured, and vibrant community and I feel extremely fortunate to call Baraboo home,” she said.

Petkova-Ball, like Horowitz, has enjoyed getting back on stage. A pandemic silver lining, Petkova-Ball suggests, is that everyone has a renewed feeling that the arts are important to one’s day-to-day life.

“We’ve jumped back into sharing art with even greater passion now,” she said.

Passion doesn’t have to be serious. It can be goofy and silly, too. That doesn’t make it any less impactful.

“After so much isolation, we need to reconnect with each other, and what better way to do that than through shared experiences?” said actor Scott Rawson, food and beverage manager at the Crystal Grand Music Theater.

He, too, very much looks forward to hearing laughter emanate from the audience.

“This is what performing arts gives us, something in which I believe we are truly lacking: shared experiences,” he remarked.

Some of those shared experiences will happen this coming weekend at the UW-Platteville Baraboo Sauk County campus; one that will include a bumbling mayor and an accountant who can’t keep their clothes on.