Review: THE MINUTES at Dirt Dogs Theatre Co.

Written by Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Tracy Letts and nominated for Best Play at the 2022 Tony Awards, THE MINUTES is a political satire infused with dark humor, offering a timely critique of power dynamics, political corruption, and the manipulation of history.

Set during a council meeting in the small, fictional town of Big Cherry, a group of local politicians and officials convenes to address seemingly routine, mundane matters. As the meeting unfolds, however, unexpected and unsettling truths about the town’s past, and the people in charge, begin to surface. THE MINUTES delivers an urgent and engaging reflection on how even the smallest political systems reflect and influence larger power structures.

I applaud how such a small representation of a cozy township can evoke such big, uneasy feelings about how our country is being run (and spun) right now. As members of Big Cherry’s council file in, it’s remarkable how much they manage to say to each other while saying nothing at all. This goes on for quite a while, which builds both the tension, and the confusion, blurring the line between the mundane and the menacing. After all, a play about a council meeting is not intriguing, unless it’s a mask for something deeper, darker, and more damning.

The stage design is stark: five paneled desks forming the council’s dais, no frills, no distractions. That minimalism allows the audience to focus squarely on the performances and the story. The characters are most certainly archetypes, and are well cast. There’s the Pragmatic Careerist, the Dutiful Moral Conscience, the Fallen Idealist, the Outsider, and so on. We do get a really clear idea of which all of them are early into their entrance. What you wonder is how (if at all) they will change throughout the play’s story arc.

Entertaining moments punctuate what could otherwise feel like bureaucratic drudgery, chiefly the animated, absurd retelling of Big Cherry’s founding myth. Through evocative shifts in lighting and sound, the truth of the town’s origins gradually emerges, led with pompous pageantry by Trevor B. Cone as Mayor Superba. Cone, who also serves as Executive Director of Dirt Dogs Theatre Co., balances confidence with absurdity, countered by newcomer Mr. Peel (Brock Huerter), played with bright-eyed exasperation as the lone voice of reason in an increasingly unreasonable room.

Jenna Morris Miller’s Ms. Johnson, the crafty keeper of records who warms to Peel but is barred from voting, anchors the play’s quieter moral center. Todd Thigpen’s Mr. Blake injects humor as the perpetually tippled councilman aiding the meek and medicated Ms. Matz (Malinda L. Beckham) through both the agenda and their shared stash. John Raley’s Mr. Breeding is all bluster and entitlement, the bully who mistakes volume for authority. Jimmy Vollman’s Mr. Hanratty deftly captures the opportunist, hedging every bet while drumming up support for himself. William Giffen's Mr. Assalone (the “e” is very much not silent—and neither is he) plays the toady to Breeding, greasing wheels and counting kickbacks. Melissa J. Marek’s Ms. Innes offers comic contrast: self-important, verbose, and blissfully unaware of her own inability to listen.

Standouts include Justin Morgan Brown as the elusive Mr. Carp, whose late appearance and powerhouse monologue finally illuminate what’s really been happening, and Ron Jones as Mr. Oldfield, the doddering yet wise-cracking elder statesman who lands many of the night’s laughs.

The ending, however, left me puzzled. Once the truth is unearthed and rationales laid bare, the council’s descent into ritualistic behavior echoes the very atrocities their town once committed. It’s a jarring turn meant, I think, to expose how historical guilt is often absorbed, distorted, and repeated, but I wish the production had pushed further. With nationalist fervor and neo-fascist rhetoric again surfacing in our headlines, the parallel is chilling, though the staging here feels more confusing than cathartic.

Still, THE MINUTES is a production well worth your time. It’s the kind of play that lingers not just because of what happens, but because of what it exposes. Once the truth is out, the council is asked what kind of community they want to be. That question echoes far beyond Big Cherry’s chambers. I left the theatre wondering if America even realizes it’s still being asked the same thing.

THE MINUTES runs through November 8th, with performances Thursday – Saturday evenings (with a 2pm matinee on Sundays) at MATCH (the Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston) in Matchbox 3. The show is 90 minutes and does not have an intermission. More information on the theater and the production can be found here.

POST-PUBLICATION NOTE:
Specific reference to director Curtis Barber was inadvertently omitted in the initial publication of the above review, and is the sole fault of the reviewer.

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