Satire presented in 2 unnatural acts
JULIE YORK COPPENS
Theater Writer

This isn't natural.

On one Charlotte stage this weekend: a futuristic "Cultural Fiesta" theme park whose star attraction -- a Native American -- has dubious ethnic credentials.

On another: a women's detention center whose star inmates have dubious sexual credentials.

Pseudo-indigenous museum specimens in the not-so-distant future. Prison babes in drag from the not-so-distant past.

Fans of outrageous satire have two local acts to catch by June 30: Eric Coble's apocalyptic comedy "Natural Selection," now playing at Actor's Theatre of Charlotte; and "Women Behind Bars," opening tonight at Spirit Square.

"Natural Selection," meanwhile, is the regional premiere of Coble's script, a memorable entry from the 2006 Humana Festival of New American Plays in Louisville, Ky. (Coble also wrote "Bright Ideas," a "Macbeth"-inspired critique of preschool-obsessed parents, seen at Actor's Theatre in 2004.) Mark Sutch of Davidson College directs.

"People should walk into the theater expecting to laugh and to have a good time," Sutch says of "Natural Selection."

The play stars Charlotte actor Joseph Klosek as Henry, a Cultural Fiesta curator on a quest for a bona fide Native American to replenish the park's dwindling stock. Henry finds one, he thinks, on an expedition to the Southwest, reimagined by the playwright as a no-man's-land parched by global warming -- but the catch leads to complications at work and at home. Meanwhile, oh yes, the world comes to an end.

"Like all satire, it does have a serious undercurrent to it," Sutch says. "It's about something, which doesn't lessen its humor -- in fact, it makes that humor more vibrant. There's an element of it that connects to our lives."

Henry and his wife, like all "civilized" Americans in Coble's near-futuristic dystopia, lead a hermetically sealed, Internet-based existence. They raise their son via Webcam. They communicate via blog. When they finally venture outdoors, into the ravaged environment, all hell breaks loose -- but not until Henry gets a taste of the authentic life he craves.

"I don't own a cell phone. I try not to while away my time on the Internet," Sutch says. "This play fed into something I've been trying to keep alive for myself. You know, trying to resist the onslaught."

Even Innovative's prison-movie lampoon has a message, of sorts, if viewers consider how far our American culture has come -- or not -- since the era of the exploitation picture.

The most satisfying comedies, Sutch suggests, make us laugh and think. Between the nasty jailhouse chow of "Women Behind Bars" and "Natural Selection's" sloppy joes (one of that play's running gags), the director says, "Maybe the audience will have something to chew on."

NATURAL SELECTION

Vanishing cultures collide in Eric Coble's zany, apocalyptic comedy.

WHEN: 8 p.m. today-Saturday; 7:30 p.m. Wednesday (pay-what-you-can) and Thursday; continuing various times through June 30.

WHERE: Actor's Theatre of Charlotte, 650 E. Stonewall St.

ADMISSION: $23-28.

DETAILS: 704-342-2251; or www.actorstheatre charlotte.org.