2003: Veronique of the Mounties

Fall of 2003, Tour: Oregon

Written by Michael Gene Sullivan, Bruce Barthol & Ellen Callas
Music by Jason Sherbundy
Lyrics by Bruce Barthol
Directed by Michael Gene Sullivan

VERONIQUE featured performers Velina Brown, Christian Cagigal, Michael Carreiro, Conrad Cimarra, Bekka Fink, Ed Holmes & Keiko Shimosato Carreiro
and band members Noam Lemish, Alex Budman & Joel Fadness


View original playbill

View show photos

poster
Poster Design: Spain Rodriguez
poster
Poster Design: Spain Rodriguez

Set in the near future, Veronique of the Mounties, finds the US government deeply engaged in its imperialistic quest to save the people of the world from themselves. After bringing "democracy" to Iraq, Syria, and France, the US turns its gaze to the terrorist threat on its northern border, CANADA. Fiction follows fiction until only one thing can protect America (and launch the Cheney/Rice run for the White House in 2008), Operation Frozen Freedom.

Meanwhile, as the Canadians mobilize to fight off invasion, Royal Canadian Mounted Policewoman Veronique Du Bois is given a dangerous mission: to journey into the heart of American darkness and recover the object that may stop the US military's insane rush to the Great White North.

Amid laughter and music, the play will answer these burning questions: Why would America turn away from its own economic and social problems and attack the peace-loving hockey fans in the north? Who benefits from a constant war on terror? Can a country with a maple leaf as a flag truly be a terrorist threat? And what has Canada got that's more valuable than oil?
Production Photo
Buffy Stern reports
Photographer: Julie Bernstein
Pictured: (1-r) Bekka Fink, Michael Carreiro

Reviews and Articles:

"The songs are terrific. Composed by musical director Jason Sherbundy (keyboard player in the adept accompanying trio), with typically sharp lyrics by Barthol..."
SF Gate home of the San Francisco Chronicle - 7/7/03

"The raw materials for creating socially relevant theater never run dry, but in the past few years, SFMT has faced a challenge: Too much absurdity, too little time."
Santa Cruz Sentinel - 9/6/03

"If that plot sounds a bit subversive, rest assured that the San Francisco Mime Troupe more than lives up to its reputation for rabble-rousing with this anti-war satire."
Contra Costa Times - 2003

"The colorful snowy-mountain set has more folds, slots, and tabs than a kid's pop-up book and just might make you feel chilly looking at it. The producers have taken last year's skiing effect and blown it up for a hilarious car chase where the "drivers" zigzag across the stage while their "cars" (painted flats) move behind them."
East Bay Express - 8/6/03

"...Opened July 4 in front of 3,000 people in Dolores Park..."
SF Gate home of the San Francisco Chronicle - 8/1/03

"We go from zero to an opening in two months, which is idiotic and sometimes it shows. Our opening days are real rough—sets are falling apart, costumes aren't there, people don't know their lines yet because their lines just got changed that day. ...There are people who come to our opening day show just to see us spin out, to see the crashes, to see the flaming fireballs of missed cues. Then they'll come and see it at the end. ...It becomes a well-oiled comedy and satire machine." - Ed Holmes
The Berkeley Daily Planet - 7/11/03

"Troupe brings humorous musical to inform audiences of the state of world and U.S. government affairs"
The Onion - 10/22/03

"The enlightening, fast-paced production uses clever props, brilliant costuming and witty songs to maximize the soap-opera twists in this action-adventure gender-bending subversive play to expose the hypocrisies of the U.S. Administration - 'One Nation-Corporation under God'."
Castro Online - 2003


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