‘Trumbo: Red, White & Blacklisted’ at South Park Theatre; Little Lake Staging ‘Wonder of the World’ (Thurs., 7/27/17)

Colorado screenwriter and novelist Dalton Trumbo at House Un-American Activities Committee hearings, 1947.

1) Fans of Bryan Cranston’s turn as Dalton Trumbo should know that Trumbo: Red, White & Blacklisted is not based on the 2015 film. Rather, this play stays in the family. Christopher Trumbo, Dalton Trumbo’s son, centered it around  the letters his father wrote while blacklisted. An off-Broadway production debuted in 2003, and it has toured nationally. The play contains two characters: Dalton Trumbo and a narrator. Trumbo was one of the Hollywood Ten, individuals blacklisted for refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee about their alleged ties to the Communist Party. Trumbo, a screenwriter and novelist, continued to write while blacklisted. His Roman Holiday won the Academy Award for Writing, but Ian McLellan Hunter, fronting for Trumbo, got the Oscar. Cleo Trumbo, Dalton’s widow, accepted the award posthumously in 1993. 7:30 p.m. Continues through August 5. South Park Theatre, Corner of Brownsville Road and Corrigan Drive, South Park. (CM)

2) Cass should have never looked in her husband’s sweater drawer, for it is there she finds a dirty little secret that sets the plot in motion. Feeling like life is passing her by, she jaunts off to Niagara Falls with a bucket list of things she wants to do. During her journey of self-discovery, she teams up with some lively characters: a suicidal alcoholic with a barrel headed for the falls, a good-looking tour boat captain, a therapist dressed like a clown, and two bickering undercover detectives working on a case involving a large jar of peanut butter. A trip to Niagara Falls has never been so humorous. Wonder of the World, by David Lindsay-Abaire, contains some adult language. 8 p.m. Performances through August 5. Little Lake Theatre Company, 500 Lakeside Drive South, Canonsburg. 

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