A new play by a Delaware playwright uses satire and slapstick to highlight a serious social problem.
Thank You Willie Sutton starts in the aftermath of a funeral, when four friends come to a sad realization about their departed elderly friend. Bill Potter is the play’s author and the co-director of the show.
“And they start talking about how she had to choose food over drugs, and she chose food and died because she didn't have enough money to pay for her drugs," he explains.
The quartet hatches a plan - to rob pharmacies and distribute the medicines they steal to people in need. And, just as things arise to complicate the plot, Potter and his co-director, Susie Moak, had to contend with some real-life complications, when one of the play’s stars broke her knee in a biking accident. That required a rewrite of the play. Fortunately, he originally wrote the character to be clumsy, and her real-life accident led to more comedy.
“How much mischief can a klutz with a pair of crutches get into on stage?" Potter says. "I said, ‘Oh, this thing just writes itself.’”
Potter says that while the play is funny, he hopes audiences will take away a deeper message. That’s something he believes lies at the heart of community theatre.
“Community theaters are more than just places to go and see fan favorites," he says. "Fan favorites are important to pay the bills, but they should also be places where issues that are important to the community bubble up and are addressed.”
Thank You Willie Sutton is presented as part of Chapel Street Players’ NEXT playwriting group. Shows are Saturday and Sunday.
Delaware Public Media's arts coverage is made possible, in part, by support from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.
