"Mae West and the Trial of Sex" by Walking Shadow Theatre Company at The Crane Theater

Censorship in theater is a hot topic in 2025, with many theaters losing NEA funding for doing plays that allegedly do not align with mandates from this administration. The government is trying to tell artists what kind of plays they can and cannot do, but artists will be artists, and tell the stories they want to tell, even if that has become more difficult. Nearly a hundred years ago, the New York theater scene was also facing censorship, with artists receiving jail time and fines for doing "immoral" plays, and theaters being closed for a year or more. Walking Shadow Theatre Company's new play Mae West and the Trial of Sex chronicles one such battle against censorship, in a story that feels very timely and relevant. See it at the Crane Theater in Northeast Minneapolis through June 22.

Sex on trial (Joe Swanson, Kayla Dvora Feld, and
Emily A. Grodzi, photo by Dan Norman)

Written by Walking Shadow's Artistic Director John Heimbuch, Mae West and the Trial of Sex covers a time in the movie star and sex symbol's life when she was working on Broadway, before heading west to Hollywood. The play begins as we turn the calendar from 1926 to 1927, with Mae starring in a hit Broadway play called simply Sex. She's playing a woman who makes her living "following the fleet," the name of an early play they may or may not have plagiarized. This play covers the plagiarism trial, as well as the attempts at censoring theater by various politicians, laws, and committees. Sex and two other plays are raided and brought to trial for violating these new laws, and Mae and her team defend themselves in court. They're concurrently working on a new play called The Drag (which Feral Theatre Company did a version of at last year's Minnesota Fringe Festival), highlighting and celebrating the drag community, which was also under attack from the censorship laws. There's a lot of information in this play that runs close to three hours, and it would probably benefit from a bit of editing and streamlining to make things more concise, while still getting the point across. That being said, the inventive staging and engaging cast keep our attention. 

the ensemble of Mae West and the Trial of Sex
(photo by Dan Norman)

Allison Vincent directs the play, with the entire seven-person cast on stage most of the time. Both sides of the stage are set up like backstage dressing rooms, and this is where actors sit when not in the scene - changing costumes, gathering props, and moving set pieces in and out. Most of the cast play too many characters to count, with bold choices in accents and physicality that really works, and adds some humor to the play. There's a sort of melodramatic, overly theatrical, old-timey feel to the show that's a lot of fun to watch. Props, sets, and costumes all have a vintage feel that sets us squarely in the early 20th Century, with the story playing out in front of a luscious red velvet curtain. The script allows for some play-within-a-play moments, as we see mini performance scenes from the various plays discussed, which are well-staged and really give us a sense of the theater at the time. The story is accompanied by an original recorded soundtrack that also feels of the era. (Scenic design by Sarah Bahr, costume design by Mandi Johnson, lighting design by Tony Stoeri, composition and sound design by Thomas Speltz, and props design by Bobbie Smith.)

Emily A. Grodzik as Mae West
(photo by Dan Norman)

Emily A. Grodzik only plays one role in the play, but she does it exceptionally well. She simply is Mae West (with the caveat that I don't think I've ever seen the real thing on film, so I have no comparison). She's sultry and strong and confident, a woman who knows what she wants and how to get it. Emily plays all dimensions of Mae - the performer, the daughter, the boss, the friend, creating a well-rounded picture of the woman behind the icon. The six-person ensemble (Jack Bechard, Neal Beckman, Kelsey Laurel Cramer, Kayla Dvorak Feld, Samuel Osborne-Huerta, and Joe Swanson) also does a great job playing many different characters, with just a change of accessory, physicality, and/or accent. The array of old-timey New York and various immigrant accents (with help from dialect coach Keely Wolter) are entertaining. If I had to choose highlights in this strong ensemble, I would point out Kelsey who cracked me up with almost every character, and Neal with a beautifully sensitive performance as a drag performer (reminiscent of his TCTB Award-nominated performance in Torch Song last year).

It's astounding to think that we're in much the same situation we were a hundred years ago, with theater artists (and journalists) censoring themselves so as not to go up against new restrictive laws, or choosing to fight to make the art they want to make, even if they don't immediately win the battle. Artists have always been at the forefront of social justice movements, and that's not going to change. Mae West and the Trial of Sex beautifully illustrates the similarities between that era and this one, and the courage of artists to stand up to censorship.