Melodrama: The Ballad of Gopher Gap
August 17, 18, 24, 25, 26 at 7:00 pm
August 27 at 2:00 pm
Francisco Center for the Performing Arts: www.fcpalaveta.org
Tickets available online, at Mountain Merman Brewing Company, and at the door.
Bunco DeSneer (slicker than lard on hot cornbread) is salting the Spenawampum Mine in Gopher Gap with fake minerals. He hopes to snare rich Easterners looking for a good investment. He’s aided in his dirty work by Flora Fourflusher, a phony assayer, and Slats, a stupid stagecoach driver. The other full-time resident is Crazy Nanette, whose only child disappeared years ago when she left it in a nice cool spot… under an ice wagon. When the suckers show up (including a waif, a judge, a newspaperwoman and the man-hungry Ottillie), Bunco wastes no time in fleecing them. But wait! Two unexpected visitors arrive: Rocky Romantic, a mountain man and ’wilderness poet,’ and Verlinda Springblossom, a beauty. She’s inherited the town from a distant relative (the best kind), Piute Pete. Verlinda doesn’t believe in ’robbing the earth,’ so she intends to close down the mine and open a hummingbird sanctuary. Naturally, Bunco will have none of this and the hilarity begins. This is a side-splitting romp that’s overripe with cornball gags and puns, fast riotous action and fun roles.
