Annex Theater's Penguins 5: Profound Ongoing Silliness Comes To An End

The Penguins series, Annex's late night serial comedy written by Scot Auguston and directed by Bret Fetzer (the latest of which, Penguins 5: Mea Maxima Culpa, Baby is running through next Friday), represents something of a small challenge when it comes to discussing its merits. For one thing, there isn't much to unpack, which is neither a strength or a demerit, just a statement of fact. Recently, in social media, Auguston took to stating plainly that the Penguins series was never intended to be a satire or a broadside aimed at organized religion. Instead, what Auguston was shooting for was a simple good time, a dirty catalyst for sniggering set in Catholic drag.

In that respect, Auguston, Fetzer and their talented comedic cast have succeeded all too well throughout the series' run. The cast and crew has consistently risen to the challenge posed by Auguston's ever increasing amounts of ridiculous plot twists and contrived comic situations. It's hard to find fault in the performances given by Christopher Dietz, Lisa Viertel, Daniel Christensen, Jillian Vashro, Katie Driscoll, Maggie Ferguson-Wagstaffe, Sophie Lowenstein, Jenny Schmidt and Clayton Weller (your correspondent is particularly fond of Weller's ludicrous jesuit monk Brother Placido, a veritable font of badly accented malaprops). The majority of this crew has been working together since the beginning of the series a few years back, and the result is a palpable chemistry that's infectious to behold. This is heartening especially considering that Penguins 5, as the subtitle suggests, is intended to be the end of the narrative.

That said, everything that fellow Seattlest theater contributor Omar Willey and your correspondent wrote about the fourth Penguins installment back in February still holds true. Particularly the bits about the diminishing returns inherent in the serialized comedy format that late night productions tend to tackle. Penguins is hardly the only culprit in recent memory, the Schmee's productions of Crescendo Falls, and Money and Run, going as far back as King's Elephants' Capitol Hill 98104 and Aha's In Bred, WA, all come to mind; the shared truth is that the longer a serialized comedy goes on, the less fresh it's going to seem.

Which doesn't mean that serialized comedies shouldn't be attempted; on the contrary, if the stars, talent and audience interest align, they are proven winners at the box office, if not necessarily critically acclaimed -- for as long as that lasts. It is simply that the pitfalls are now glaring, and future artists wishing to emulate the formula would do well to be aware of them.

Back to the matter at hand, Penguins 5 is empty calories and silly silly silly fun. Thankfully, familiarity with prior installments isn't needed. It also helps to be in the proper mood in order to enjoy the proceedings, and we encourage you to do whatever is necessary to chemically enhance your own mood, should you decide to see it.

Now that the series has come to an end, however, we are eagerly awaiting the next project these talented individuals come up with, and hope that it is something we could genuinely sink our teeth into.

Tonight and next Friday at 11:00p.m., Monday, August 22 at 8:00p.m. // Annex Theatre, 1100 East Pike Street // $5 - $10, tickets available here