The 2018 Minnesota Fringe Festival offered theatre history nerds a rare treat. The eclectic range of over one hundred and thirty productions performed during eleven days in August included Revolt of the Beavers, a theatrical chestnut often referenced in theatre history textbooks but seldom witnessed in production. Guided by playwright/producer Kit Bix’s adaptation of Louis Lantz and Oscar Saul’s 1937 original, the production team delivered a playful, anachronistic romp that reified the adage that what’s old is new. By reimagining this depression-era collectivist children’s theatre musical, Bix’s adaptation of Revolt of the Beavers lampooned political tomfoolery, promoted positive social change, and embodied diversity. Who knew a ragtag gang of beavers could be so wise?
Providing historical context may be helpful, even if doing so unleashes a flood of acronyms. Revolt of the Beavers originated from the famed Federal Theatre Project (FTP), one of the branches of the Work Progress Administration (WPA). The WPA employed thousands of out-of-work Americans during the darkest days of the Great Depression. The list of theatre luminaries who were sustained by the FTP includes Susan Glaspell, Arthur Miller, Elmer Rice, and Orson Welles. Led by Hallie Flanagan, the first woman to head a U.S. government agency, the FTP opened Revolt of the Beavers in 1937 at the Adelphi Theatre in New York City. Critic Brooks Atkinson famously described the children’s theatre production as “Marxism à la Mother Goose.”
That same year, the House Unamerican Activities Committee (HUAC) publicly reviled Revolt of the Beavers—along with several other FTP productions—for promoting communist ideology. Under the direction of crusading Congressman Martin Dies, HUAC investigated the FTP, eventually calling Flanagan to testify at a congressional hearing. Just two years later, in 1939, budget cuts completely eliminated the FTP, thus killing the first and arguably most successful attempt to date of a national theatre in the United States. The play subsequently disappeared into the archives, seeing only a handful of productions in the past eighty-two years.
Fortunately, Bix specializes in reimagining relevant—if forgotten—classics. Revolt of the Beavers followed up on last year’s successful Minnesota Fringe run of her adaptation of Sinclair Lewis’s novel It Can’t Happen Here, a theatrical version of which originally premiered in 1936 as part of the FTP. On the surface, a revival of It Can’t Happen Here seems more suited to post-2016 election than the more recent revival of Revolt of the Beavers. After all, Lewis’s political satire overtly portended the rise to the presidency of an unqualified, egotistical, would-be totalitarian narcissist. Sound familiar? All things considered, however, Revolt of the Beavers held up pretty well. Indeed, while perhaps not as overt an example of political prophesy, Bix’s clever adaptation provided a remarkable amount of wisdom for our current, turbulent times.
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