America:aciremA is a satirical show written and directed by Minneapolis-based Laura Leffler-McCabe and Eric Avery, with performances by Leffler-McCabe, Avery and Ben Mattson. It’s a self-described “energetic romp through the muck and mire of American culture,” a “slice of hilarity pie with a cold scoop of satire on the side.” By all accounts, it’ll be safely up the alley of anyone who’s not exactly thrilled with the way America’s being run.
    “Eric and I started writing the show back in November,” says Leffler-McCabe. “We had both visited the Southern States over the summer and were struck by the issues of race down there. And his take on it as a gay black man and mine as a straight woman we thought was interesting — the different ways we were treated.”
    As the project progressed, the pair realized they wanted to add music as well as some more experimental elements and so decided to add Mattson (who co-wrote the songs with Avery) and Blake Bolan (who helps on direction) as collaborators. “It sort of passed back and forth,” says Leffler-McCabe, “with everyone touching on all the different styles.” The resulting show is a collage of performance styles that satirizes a broad spectrum of issues rather than confining itself to specifics of the political situation today. “We try to juxtapose different historical styles of theatre with different moments in American history,” says Leffler-McCabe.” We’re hoping that juxtaposition helps bring out our message.”
    Message? “We started off by thinking about troubles in today’s society, and then as we started tracing everything back through time it became really interesting to us that we’ve been facing the same problems all along. The ways we’ve dealt with them haven’t been necessarily 100 per cent effective, and 200 years later, we’re still dealing with them.”
    America:aciremA recently opened in Minneapolis. “We’re really excited to come to Calgary,” she says, “and we hope we can have some dialogue with other artists and Canadians about the problems in our two countries.” Weighty words like dialogue and message aside, the show seems committed to not taking itself too seriously. “It’s wacky and fun,” she concludes, “and we have a lot of fun doing it.”