'Voyeur' edgy, but bland, dark

SATURDAY'S VOYEUR, Salt Lake Acting Company, through Aug. 28 (363-7522 or 355-2787). Running time: two hours, 7 minutes (one intermission).

The 2005 version of "Saturday's Voyeur," Salt Lake Acting Company's annual tirade against Utah's social and religious landscape, moves south past Point of the Mountain and into the land of Happy Valley.

In the process, it tackles such newsy topics as polygamy, the war in Iraq, Mayor Rocky Anderson, the Utah State Legislature, Viagra, Brigham Young University-approved housing, Intermountain Health Care, Texas Hold 'Em poker, Michael Moore's visit to Utah Valley State College and Ken Jennings and "Jeopardy!"

Director John Caywood, well known for his flair for comedy, is working with a script (by co-producers Allen Nevins and Nancy Borgenicht) that doesn't seem to know where it's going. It's been a bland year for serious local topics, and it shows.

While there are — not unexpectedly — a few barbs about the LDS Church, the setting this year is a private asylum in Utah County operated by the "Kingstone" family of polygamists.

Most of the "residents" in the sanitarium are there just because they don't fit into the expected Utah County mold — one reads City Weekly, one (surprise!) is gay, another is one of polygamy's "lost boys" found drifting on the streets of St. George, and one is a young lady who wants to get a job . . . at Bikini Cuts.

The entire ensemble works well together and some performers — largely due to the roles they've been given — stand out more than others.

Jayne Luke is a knockout as the feared "Sister Nurse." Get in her way and she'll zap you with an electrical shock.

The asylum operates in the black partly due to its "undocumented" workers — Javier, an orderly from Mexico who dispenses heartfelt advice, and Unika, AWOL from the military and hoarding the patients' meds for herself. David Spencer is terrific as Javier, especially in his gentle, almost fatherly moments, and Anita Holland does a fine job as Unika, diverting the patients from their drugs and into the joy of hip-hop.

Darrin D. Doman and Brenda Sue Cowley are also well cast as Ben and Leea. He insists they've been married; she claims they never made it "to the American Fork temple" because of his obsession with "Jeopardy!" Ben believes he was channeling the answers to Ken Jennings, who failed only when Leea grabbed the remote and turned off the TV.

Joe Welsch is also a standout as the mysterious, wheelchair-bound Deevil.