If you take Jen Childs’ assessment at face value, it doesn’t bode well for the latest installment of 1812 Productions’ annual political satire. “I don’t find anything funny about this election,” Childs says bluntly.
But don’t expect this year’s “This Is The Week That Is” to be any less side-splitting than its six predecessors. Childs and head news writer Don Montrey have been busily mining headlines for comedic gems, resulting in a show that tours both presidential candidates’ homes, re-enacts the country’s first election and visits a county fair in honor of the Year of the Woman.
“It’s my job to take these things that I don’t find funny and to transform them into humor,” Childs explains. “Some of the best stuff that I’ve written has been about events that made me really, really angry. In a curious way, it’s my activism.”
This year’s show boasts a new set and multimedia design and a seven-piece ensemble skewering topics from Todd Akin to Chik-fil-A.
Granted, the experience of creating 1812’s second “Election Special” is an inevitable comedown thanks to the absence of a certain key player in the race the last time around.
“The last election we had Sarah Palin,” Childs sighs with a palpable nostalgia. “She was the comedic gift that kept on giving. The energy of this election special is a little bit different.”
If you go
1812 Productions: ‘This Is The Week That Is: The Election Special’
Through Nov. 4
Plays & Players Theatre,
1714 Delancey St.
$22-$38, 215-592-9560
