"These current events could have made "limp wrist on the lever" - a satire set at a conversion camp - freshly relevant. Instead, the play, which had its world premiere at the Potrero Stage this month, feels like a throwback to an era when the stakes for queer youth at least seemed much lower. The script, by openly queer playwright Preston Choi, seems to exhibit a Bill Maher-esque glee in mocking wokeness."
"The story opens with three queer teens - Anita (Ashley Jaye), Charli (River Bermudez Sanders), and Zo (linda maria girón) - trying to escape a conversion therapy camp. When the trio is caught by camp director Thomas (Kenny Scott), Zo uses Thomas' own stun gun against him, and announces a new plan: instead of escaping, they should take Thomas and the other counselors hostage, "deprogram them" and liberate the camp."
Twenty-four states ban conversion therapy for minors, with five more imposing restrictions, while a Supreme Court challenge threatens to reverse those protections. A satire set at a conversion camp targets leftist responses to anti-queer bigotry rather than the bigotry itself. The play's tone reads as a throwback that mocks wokeness with a Maher-esque glee and lands as poorly timed. The plot follows three queer teens—Anita, Charli, and Zo—who, after being caught escaping, take camp director Thomas and other counselors hostage. Zo proposes "deprogramming" the counselors to liberate the camp, while characters drift into caricatures of radicalism and passive pacifism.
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