7 July 2023
TOPEKA (KSNT) – The longest-running play in Topeka theater history, Dale Easton’s “The Drunkard,” opens Friday, July 7 for its 923rd performance at the VFW Philip Billard Post 1650, 3110 SW Huntoon. The is put on by ARTS, Inc. and Karen Hastings Productions.
“This is a great chance to see a bit of Topeka history. We have theater legends, Karen Hastings and Phil Grecian, and you have all these wonderful newcomers. If you haven’t seen the Drunkard before come check it out, if you have, come back, you will not regret it.” Shawn Trimble, playing Sample Switchel in The Drunkard.
Complete with villains, heroines, live ragtime piano, and spirited hissing and booing from the
audience, Dale Easton’s The Drunkard was adapted from a 19th-Century straight-up temperance
play but skews the once-serious theater piece from its anti-liquor stance into an “over the top”
satire that mocks both temperance and melodrama acting.
The Drunkard plays at VFW Philip Billard Post 1650, 3110 SW Huntoon, with 7:30
p.m. Friday and Saturday performances and 2:00 Sunday performances in The Last Call Lounge
on July 7, 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, and 23. Doors open at 7:00 p.m. for Friday and Saturday
seating with a 7:30 p.m. curtain and at 1:30 p.m. for Sunday performances at 2:00 p.m.
Tickets are now on sale online only at Eventbrite for $12 or $15 at the door.