Coming Soon:

The 20th Century Way

by Tom Jacobson

directed by Clyde Simon

December 3rd - 18th

The true story of two actors who hired themselves out to the Long Beach Police Department in 1914 to entrap “social vagrants” in public restrooms. Thirty-one men were arrested, and the ensuing scandal led to an ordinance against “oral sodomy” in California.

​

“Playwright Tom Jacobson is known for tackling challenging themes, and his latest effort — recounting a scandalous little-known chapter in Southern California history — is among his boldest. Not content to merely relate a fascinating milestone in gay-rights travails, Jacobson sets the stage for two versatile actors to explore multilayered ruminations on sexual identity, institutional corruption, the conscience of civil servants carrying out questionable duties, the mysteries of the acting craft, and more … Jacobson’s intriguing script shrewdly mixes historical fact and fictionalization. The inventive play-within-a-play structure … The play takes a startling turn at the end, bringing Jacobson’s central themes of role-playing, self-deception, and moral responsibility to a shattering conclusion.” —Les Spindle, Backstage West

​

“… playwright Tom Jacobson, who loves to tinker with history in surprising and ticklish ways, doesn’t seem interested in doing a docu-drama. By untethering from reality a la WAITING FOR GODOT and placing the action in the actors’ minds, he comes up with something bigger, bolder and better as the two actors onstage bend identity, twist law and criminalize sex. It is also hysterically funny and simultaneously deadly serious.” —Rod Stafford Hagwood, Sun Sentinel

Tickets on sale now!

All patrons are required to be vaccinated or produce a negative test result. All patrons will be required to wear a mask throughout the performance. For more information, please visit our health and safety page.

​

About con-con:

What if theatre weren't a mirror reflecting the familiar, but an opening into unknown territory? What if there were no fourth wall?

What if, instead of going to the theatre to watch a play, you crossed the threshold into the world of the play to experience it? 

Theatre that expands the imagination and extends the conventional boundaries of language, structure, space, and performance that challenges the conventional notions of what theatre is.

What sort of theatre would this be?