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Photograph by Whitney Quinn Stebbins Con Man: Noah Johnson, played by Manfred B. Hayes, has discovered a locket on the corpse of a dead Union officer that unravels a series of mysterious events in Jon Bastian's 'Noah Johnson.' Renegade Theatre Experiment will present the Civil War dark comedy this month.

Renegade Theatre premieres the dark comedy 'Noah Johnson...'

By Mary Gottschalk

Renegade Theatre Experiment is launching its sixth season and third one at Historic Hoover Theatre with the Bay Area premiere of Noah Johnson...

The play focuses on three war profiteers scamming both the Confederacy and the Union during the Civil War.

Sean Murphy, artistic director and one of the founders of RTE, says the play is one the group has wanted to produce for some time, but technical complexities of the show delayed its production until now.

"We're at the point now where we can take on the complexities and in terms of a story dealing with war profiteering, it seemed appropriate with the current conflict going on in Iraq and Halliburton," Murphy says.

In the play Jeremiah Bentonville, a former con man who has become an undertaker, and his assistant Noah Johnson, sign contracts with the opposing armies to box up their dead.

Bentonville has no qualms about inflating the actual number of casualties, thus boosting his profits.

"The living don't notice the dead. They'll take our word for it," he explains to his assistant, while teaching him the art of "making something out of nothing."

Things are fine until a representative of the North questions the numbers Bentonville is reporting and gives him until the following morning to prove his numbers or be hanged.

Los Angeles playwright Jon Bastian says the play was inspired by a column he read in the Los Angeles Times, dealing with the origin of the word undertaker, saying it became common during the Civil War.

"I envisioned groups of undertakers following soldiers around like prostitutes, so I wrote a scene with two undertakers having to deal with the aftermath of a battle," Bastian says.

From there, he expanded the scene into a play.

Bastian says he used the Civil War setting "partly because he'd mentioned it in the article and because I have a thing for history. It seemed like an interesting period to set a play in."

Noah Johnson... was initially produced during the first Gulf War, and Murphy believes the timing during the present war is very appropriate.

He points to the deaths on the Civil War battlefields and the deaths in Iraq on the nightly news, which he believes are abstract to most people.

"There's one scene that shows killing a person isn't an easy endeavor," Murphy says. "It takes a lot to kill a person."

Bastian says, "I am anti-war, but this play is not specifically an anti-war play. I wrote it a few years before the first Gulf War, and it took about five years to get it produced."

Still, he does agree with Murphy that it seems applicable today, "especially with the issue of profiteering using war as an excuse to make money. Definitely that's an issue that turns up in the play."

While it has a timely element, Murphy admits, "it's a challenge from the marketing perspective. How many people are going to say, 'I want to go see a Civil War dark comedy'?"

Bastian agrees with Murphy that "it's a very dark comedy. We have bodies and parts flying on the stage in the first act."

Yet, he says he thinks audiences will find it a "thought-provoking comedy that involves some very interesting characters trying to outsmart each other."

Noah Johnson... was well received at its debut at the South Coast Repertory, wining its California new plays prize.

Bastian says he hopes to come to San Jose to see this new production.

Murphy shares that hope, saying, "When we've had artistic questions, Jon has been really open and accessible to us."

Although war and death may seem an adult topic, Murphy says the production is "perfect for high school students and some middle school students."

The Renegade Theatre Experiment's production of "Noah Johnson..." is performed at 8 p.m. on July 19-21 and 26-28 with 2 p.m. matinees on July 22 and 28 at Historic Hoover Theatre, 1635 Park Ave. Tickets are $18 on Thursdays and Sundays and $20 on Fridays and Saturdays. They are available in advance at www.renegadetheatre.com.