Goosed
Planet Earth Multi-Cultural Theatre Seattle at the Odd Duck Studio, 243-6773. Through Sept 21.

In the Brothers Grimm fairy tale "The Golden Goose," all who try to steal a simpleton's golden goose get stuck together. When a sad princess sees this stumbling line of greedy fools, she laughs for the first time in her life, and she and the simpleton live happily--and wealthily--ever after. No one is happy in Planet Earth's version of the story: A prostitute mother has three sons, two of whom are violent, abusive clowns (one in a big red nose, one with a multicolored rainbow wig) who fuck each other as well as Mom and do "goose," an immediately addictive drug made partly of their semen (the production of which we get to see on stage).

The simpleton is named "Thaddeus," which we are told means, "Praise God." This and other hints made me think the play was meant to be a kind of Christian allegory--for example, Thaddeus is sent to an address at the corner of Wood and Cross streets, apt. 33, and Thaddeus also stands on a platform and spreads his arms to look like Jesus on the cross. But I got confused when Thaddeus became as corrupt as those around him (one of whom is a televangelist) and ended up not happily ever after with a princess, but in bed with his trick-turning mother. This piece, written and directed by the ensemble and earnestly but amateurishly acted, seems to be trying to say something about the contemporary desire for quick highs and the miserable consequences of coming down from them--but what, I do not know.