'SLAM!' produces irreverent and over-the-top entertainment

There are times when you're not quite sure what to expect on "opening night."

That was certainly the case with Plan-B Theatre Company's one-night-only production of "SLAM!" — last weekend's culmination of a 24-hour writing-producing marathon, which ended with five truly original 10- to 15-minute plays.

When producing director Jerry Rapier welcomed the audience to the Rose Wagner Center's intimate Black Box Theatre, he made a point of saying, "we don't know what you're in for tonight." And the rest of the evening turned out to be quite a ride.

Five well-known local playwrights spent Friday night and into the wee hours of Saturday morning writing short plays based on titles pulled out of a hat. There was no time for the luxury of "writer's block." Some of the titles were pretty edgy (this is, after all, Plan-B). And most of the the scripts ended up containing quite a bit of adult material.

• Tobin Atkinson, home on leave from the military, had one of the best scripts — with a title we can't publish in a family newspaper — about a politician running for senator and his frustrated campaign manager, who is desperately looking for even a mild scandal to draw attention to his bland candidate. It was a humorous look at how a spin doctor can give a campaign a whole new slant.

• Jeffrey Gold's "My Sister, My Bride" dealt with a man in love with both his stepsister and his wife. It touched on aspects of both incest and polygamy in a humorous vein.

• Julie Jensen's "Blitzkrieg" had Jeanette Puhich portraying a woman conducting a yard sale — on the lawn outside the LDS Church Museum of History and Art — with interesting results. One of her customers may be either a former high school friend (she insists she doesn't have the slightest idea who he is) or a man with a violent streak.

• Aden Ross' "Love Runs Up Hill" focused on three people apparently abducted and held hostage in a cold, windowless room. Are they victims of a terrorist plot? Is it "us" vs. "them"? It was an interesting premise with some fine acting.

• The final production of the evening was Eric Samuelsen's "The Butcher, the Baker and the Bedtime Buddy," involving an aging slaughterhouse owner (Tony Larimer), his spoiled wife, who was more than willing to ignore the overpowering stench of the meat-packing plant as long as it produces tons of money, and one of his children, constantly groveling for handouts — not for herself, but for her siblings.