Letter to the editor

Published March 05, 2010

I saw the university’s most recent theatre production on opening night, Our Country’s Good. I was shocked and repulsed by its immoral and sexually explicit nature. It should be called “Our Country’s Bad.” As a matter of fact, it should be called “Our Country’s Pornographic.”

One of the opening lines in the play contains the C word and an X-rated description of cunnilingus. My first thought was that I misheard, that word simply couldn’t have been said on stage. Next, they dropped the f-bomb. Then the word “whore.” Before long, there was a woman on stage with fake cleavage drawn on her chest, as if it wasn’t big enough to begin with.

I finally came to fully realize the nature of this play during a scene in which a female actress says to her male co-actor something about “spreading her legs” as she does so with her own body. Her next action involved circling his nipples with her fingertips and saying something like “first the left and then the right.”

The foremost complaint that I have about this production (besides the obvious) is that nothing anywhere made me aware of its content. The title, Our Country’s Good sounded innocent enough to me. So guess what? I took my 15 year old daughter.

We walked out before intermission. When I went to the ticket booth to complain, I was told, “This isn’t a children’s play.” That’s the understatement of the year. To begin with, I wasn’t expecting to see a children’s play. We’re no longer interested in Sesame Street, but neither are we interested in smut, which is exactly what we saw at UWRF.

After we left, I noticed the teeny-weeny words “adult content” printed on the bottom of the program. Who looks there? But most importantly, who even knows they should look for adult content at a school play?

Since this University does not use a rating system for its productions, I want to raise awareness for those students, who, like me, would be justifi ably enraged by its content. It is detestable, revolting, and downright foul. This play contains well beyond a few curse words, so their little disclaimer found at the bottom of the program “adult content” is severely inadequate. The language and actions truly are X-rated.

I thought my school, UWRF, was a safe place where I could share meaningful learning experiences with my family; however, it appears to me that this school isn’t the safe community campus that I originally thought it to be. I feel disappointed, betrayed, and broken-hearted.

Erika Rihm
Non-Traditional Student
UWRF