When I first heard the title of Julie Jensen's new play, "Billion Dollar Baby," I had visions of a higher-bracket version of "Million Dollar Mermaid," an old MGM swimfest starring Esther Williams.

But if there are any swimming pools in Jensen's "Baby," they're the result of overindulgent parents spoiling their kids with virtually anything and everything they want.

Salt Lake Acting Company's production of "Billion Dollar Baby" is the world premiere of a one-woman play about what Jensen calls "hyper-parenting." "It's a comedy — a satire — meant to make us laugh and change," she explained. It's about parents, probably 35-40 years old, who are drawn into "conspicuously consumptive" child-rearing — as seen through the eyes of one concerned grandmother, Polly Parchment, played by Dee Macaluso. "What these parents really have to do more than anything is 'protect' their children," Jensen said. "They're totally focused on being safety freaks."

And they don't stop at surrounding their home with fences. "They buy knee guards, helmets and even tooth guards, just so their child can safely ride a tricycle.

"Back when I was growing up in Beaver, I could just get on my horse and go riding or take my bicycle to the grocery store. I spent my summers with skinned knees, and that was OK. There was great freedom in that."

Now, following 9/11, with the government looking at ways to keep us safe and big business selling us things to keep us safe, Jensen said we've gone off the track. "I think satire works best when we've lost our sense of proportion and what's appropriate.

"These kids who are hyper-protected pay a price. They can't just go outside by themselves. They have no idea of what it's like to get on your bike and go down to the corner store. It makes me wonder what the effect of all this will be with parents worrying all the time."

Within the framework of "Billion Dollar Baby," the grandmother, Polly, is having trouble over the way her son and his wife are raising her granddaughter, who is about to turn 4.

• GUEST DIRECTOR JERE HODGIN, who has helmed nearly half-a-dozen of Jensen's previous plays — mostly in the Mill Mountain Theatre in Roanoke, Va. — is now directing one of her scripts for the first time in Salt Lake City, bringing his own experience as a grandfather of a toddler to the table. "So often people go into the theater and they see moving performances on the stage in front of them. In virtually every play you see, you can learn something about yourself.

"But in 'Billion Dollar Baby,' Julie has written a character that is so easy for us to identify with."