Monthly Archives: May 2023

From left to right, Blacktip Island Community Players Payne Hanover, Marina DeLow, Gage Hoase, Jessie Catahoula, Lee Helm and Alison Diesel will star in the BICP’s typo-inspired production of ‘The Book of Moron’ at the Caribbean island’s Heritage House this weekend. (photo courtesy of the State Library of South Australia)

The Blacktip Island Community Players Wednesday announced their annual spring musical will be ‘The Book of Moron,’ a celebration of life on the small Caribbean island, at the island’s Heritage House this Saturday and Sunday evenings.

“It started as a typo, but the response was so overwhelming, we just went with it,” BICP artistic director Doris Blenny said. “We’ve never had so many people turn out for auditions. This is the first time we’ve had to turn people away.

“We had to change the songs and dialogue, of course, but there’s a ton of folks volunteering to do that, too,” Blenny said. “Frankly, on this island, a play like this writes itself. It’s really a day-in-the-life sort of narrative, set mostly in bars. And at the dump.”

Cast members say the play addresses the island’s existential angst.

“It’s the story of Temperance League organizers trying to reform residents of a small island,” Payne Hanover said. “The locals, of course, want nothing to do with them. There’s a recurring gag where the Temperance people use big words and the locals think they’re talking about fancy wine.

“There’s a couple of big party scenes, and a big anti-Temperance riot at the dump,” Hanover said. “It’s Blacktip Island in a nutshell, really. And we made some of the musical numbers karaoke so the audience can participate, too.”

Cast members include:

• Payne Hanover as Carrie Natation
• Marina DeLow as Billy Sunday
• Gage Hoase as Gnarly Thompson
• Alison Diesel as Bud Lightning
• Cal Batten as Holden Hiscock
• Jessie Catahoula as the Pirate Queen
• Lee Helm as JoJo the Wonderdog

Some residents questioned the choice of material.

“We were hoping for something a little less controversial this year,” Chrissy Graysby said. “The younger kiddos are still traumatized after last year’s ‘Nudibranch’ musical, and that on-stage melee ‘Tora Tora Tora’ turned into. We keep hoping they’ll do a nice, family-friendly, animal story, like ‘Pet Sematary.’”

Others praised the play.

“Celebrates our heritage, y’know,” Dermott Bottoms said. “This’s the kind of thing makes Blacktip what it is today. Makes us proud to be Blacktippers.”

Alcohol will be available at a makeshift bar outside the Heritage House. All proceeds from the performances will go to the island’s Salvation Army chapter.