written by Scot Augustson, directed by Bret Fetzer
LATE NIGHT: Nov 27–Dec 19, 2009, Fri-Sat at 11 pm
(no show Friday, Dec 4)
$10 gen / $5 stu
A gang war twixt nuns and priests!
Annex Theatre’s smash success, Penguins, returns! To consolidate his power over the parish, Father Jones decides to rid himself of the meddlesome Sister Bernadette – setting off an ecclesiastical turf war of biblical proportions! 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), featuring Daniel Christensen, Chris Dietz, Teri Lazzara, Sophie Lowenstein, Jenny Schmidt, Jillian Vashro, Lisa Viertel, and Clayton Weller! See the first episode before the second rolls around in January!
“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
Stage Manager — Jillian Vashro
All-Purpose Tech Stud — Ian Johnston
