Dearest reader, if you’re like me, you often fantasize—especially these days—about escaping to another land, another time, where problems seemed smaller and less complicated. For some of us, it’s 1950s America; for others, it’s England in the early 19th century, which is so richly described in Jane Austen novels and the COVID-era escapist series Bridgerton.
Escapism was certainly what Mary Bennett, producing artistic director at Brüka Theatre, had in mind when she was planning the theater’s current lineup of shows. But when nothing seemed quite right, she decided to create one herself.
“I thought we really needed something kind of spicy and fun, without a bunch of heavy stuff around it,” Bennett said. “I was talking to a friend, and she was like, ‘Oh my God, right now, I’m just reading romance books. I’m just doing Jane Austen.’” The friend described a trend toward regencycore, in which fans revel in all the trappings of regency life.
It wasn’t Bennett’s usual fare, so she approached it with her own signature brand of silly, irreverent and utterly unexpected storytelling. Named for the fictional town that makes frequent appearances in the theater company’s summer camps for kids, Brükalton was inspired by (though it bears little resemblance to) Bridgerton and its ilk. Such stories often center on a young woman’s search for the holy grail: a wealthy, handsome man to set her toes to tingling, and to set her up financially for the rest of her days, all as she must negotiate strict societal norms.
Bennett came at it entirely differently. The residents (called “Brillagers”) are all aflutter with preparations for their bombastic king’s upcoming ball. King Chuck (played by Brett Andres) is nonsensical and self-centered, like most of the men in the town. Painted as peacocks, Bennett’s male characters are focused wholly on their appearances, and their beautification is aided by the Minister of Fashionistas (Andy Luna), a German-sounding Tim Gunn-like figure who puffs the men up with pretty accessories. Meanwhile, the women are the reasonable thinkers and scientists who can’t be bothered with beautification.
One such woman is Amacia (Kelsey Mato), our protagonist, the loneliest girl in town, whose self-imposed prison is her bed, where she pines, day after day, in her floor-length nightie, for someone to occupy her active mind. Despite her community’s fixation on the ball—King Chuck’s Balls of the Bell—Amacia, who “could be anywhere between the ages of 14 and 42,” couldn’t care less. Instead, she sets about writing a play to entertain herself, with the help of a sort-of fairy godfather, the Minister of Loneliness (Kell Kittell), who was alerted by Amacia’s lonely energy and arrived at once.
Meanwhile, Amacia’s sister/misters, Midge and Pidge (Riley McKinney and Bella Mason), a pair of birders who wear boys’ clothing because it’s more interesting than girls’ clothing (see peacocks, above), are so consumed by their birdwatching that they didn’t stop to consider their sister’s loneliness before they left the house. The gender-bending doesn’t stop there; two sets of parents are played by two men, each playing both mother and father.
Oh, there’s a prince (Matthew Stevenson) and a pauper (Jessey Richards), who arrive in Brükalton with The Way Way Back Book, which provides guidance to the people by reminding them who they are, and what’s supposed to happen. And it’s all narrated by Bennett as Lady Tiddle Tattle.
It’s over the top, fanciful, playful and impressively creative. Bennett’s ability to play with and make up language is top-notch. With a Seussian tendency to conflate the senses and make ordinary words twisted and sillified, her script contains such gems as “ridonculous,” “your highniest” and one character’s outburst, “Blunder bath! No more bongs! My belly screams with sounds!” It even contains what Bennett calls “rhythmic text,” in which narration is done through rap.
Riley McKinney, who plays Midge, said she’s been part of Bennett’s original creations for about the last decade. She describes the writing as “contemporary language, but with some nonsense sprinkled in, to kind of make that point that language is weird and wibble-wobbly. Some things have meanings, and some things don’t, and sometimes we give those things meanings.”
Indeed, Brükalton is an ode to silliness, play and surprises. There’s a meta-ness about it, the sense that the story is being written in the moment, and that the actors are all at the writer’s mercy, almost reminiscent of The Princess Bride.
“It’s written at the pace of a sitcom, so it’s a nice, tight, perfect, two-hour spring evening. I’ve suggested people come dressed for the Regency, or just wear your jammies, like Amacia … whatever you want to do,” said Bennett. “It’s just really very tongue-in-cheek about life and ego, and being completely involved in one’s own life.”
Brükalton will be performed Friday, May 2, through Sunday, May 18, at Brüka Theatre, 99 N. Virgina St., in Reno. Tickets are $30 in advance, with discounts, or $35 at the door, with discounts. For tickets and information, visit www.bruka.org.
Updated May 18: Brükalton’s run has been extended through May 23.