Allen County Democrats are organizing to join a national effort to perform a play that’s both art and a call to action.
“It Can’t Happen Here – Again!” is a stage adaptation of Sinclair Lewis’s 1935 dystopian novel where America falls prey to the twisted whims of the country’s first dictator. The latest version, revised this summer by members of Writers for Democratic Action, seeks to sound the alarms of the danger they see in a second Trump administration.
Alice Bolin of Elsmore asked Allen County Democrats for help at their monthly meeting last Thursday. Bolin hopes to join a nationwide effort that will feature over 75 locations performing the play on or around October 27, the same day Sinclair Lewis presented the first stage adaptation of his novel in 1936.
Then, Nazi Germany was on the rise and fascism was beginning to envelop Europe. It was a week before the U.S. Presidential election between Franklin Deleanor Roosevelt and Alf Landon. Roosevelt soundly defeated Landon, a Kansas Republican, and became a transformational figure in the coming World War.
The play’s script, which is available free online, calls for five readers and no real set or props. At only 26 pages, it’s an undiluted warning of the dangers of authoritarianism and the importance of civic action.
Allen County Democrats were receptive to Bolin’s idea and agreed to rehearse and look for an area venue. If they are successful in performing the play, Bolin noted they would likely be the smallest community in the country to host a public reading. The only other reading in Kansas will be hosted by Watermark Books in Wichita.
