Penguins, Ep. 2
“Roll Away the Rock”
written by Scot Augustson, directed by Bret Fetzer
CLOSING WEEKEND
Friday (19th) at 11 pm
$10 gen / $5 stu

Annex Theatreʼs smash success, Penguins, returns with an all new episode! Featuring blasphemy, heresy, dancing, guns, organ music, puppet sex, and much much more, Penguins will shock and delight Catholics and non-Catholics alike! Written by Scot Augustson (Sgt. Rigsby & His Amazing Silhouettes), directed by Bret Fetzer (director of Small Town by Kelleen Conway Blanchard).

“Now comes Penguins, Episode 2: Roll Away the Rock, which I’m happy and somewhat flabbergasted to report is even filthier than episode one… The strengths of the first installment remain the strengths of the second: As the warring figureheads Father Jones and Sister Bernadette, Chris Dietz and Lisa Viertel bring the central conceit of Penguins (clergy clash rendered as gangster noir) to vibrant, vicious life, and Fetzer’s direction continues to make the most of Annex’s scrappy space and shoestring budget. (The level of violence Penguins achieves via silhouette is remarkable.)… Penguins delivers another dose of actually shocking comedy that is way more fun than not.”
—The Stranger

“Another fresh marshmallow of irreverence and bloodshed, Episode 2 has all the smutty wit of 1… it’s impossible not to love these frocked freaks as they helplessly grope toward salvation by way of any mortal flesh within reach. The cast is marvelously committed, so it’s a pleasure to watch even the cheesiest parts.”
—Seattle Weekly

Reviews from the 1st episode:

“Brawny, brogue-brandishing badass Sister Bernadette (Lisa Viertel) demands some basic rights for nuns, which triggers a priest/nun gang war that makes last year’s pitiless Cannes winner Gomorrah look like an afterschool special…We’re talking Doubt on Ecstasy, smack, and aerosol cheese…The hour-long show felt like half that, and I wished Penguins: Episode 2 would have begun immediately after.”
—Seattle Weekly


“Ultra-lowbrow, extreme Catholic camp…[director] Fetzer keeps his cast moving full-tilt…You wouldn’t think there’d be any thrill (perverse or otherwise) left in priest-and-nun exploitation, but [playwright] Augustson mines the veins of altar-boy molestation and convent lesbianism with such fervor, he might win you over.”
—SunBreak


“A bottomless well of depravity…Helping things immensely is the cast, a uniformly excellent crew…Chris Dietz cements the show’s comic tone with his masterful performance as Father Jones…a dark comic marvel.”
—The Stranger


“I thought it was absolutely fucking great…If all late-night theater were like this, it would devour prime-time theater, which would be fantastic.”
—monologist Mike Daisey