A Necessary Diversion for our Season of Discontent

Two cops. Three crooks. Eight doors. Go! 

So reads the first line of the synopsis for SBCC’s production of Unnecessary Farce, which closes out SBCC Theatre Group’s 2025-26 season at the Jurkowitz on campus, where it plays April 17-May 2. Farce was the first play by Paul Slade Smith, a successful Broadway actor turned playwright whose next work, the political comedy The Outsider, won two Helen Hayes Awards. 

Fortunately, the P-word and anything having to do with Washington, D.C. or a statehouse are nowhere to be seen in Unnecessary Farce, which takes place in a pair of adjoining cheap motel rooms. One has an embezzling mayor apparently cooking up a scheme with his female accountant, while next door two earnest undercover cops are hoping to catch the meeting on videotape. 

That’s merely the setup for an evening of hijinks and hilarity, miscommunications and missteps both physical and otherwise, that has no pretensions to anything of societal import. In fact, according to director Sara Rademacher, the play’s title says it all: Unnecessary Farce.

“Its purpose is not to make you think deeply or solve anything. It’s just to really, honestly, be present. When you do that, it’s just funny and you go along for the ride.”

Which is exactly what Rademacher was looking for after helming a series of issues-laden shows with echoes for our time in Indecent and Animal Farm.

“I’m usually drawn to things that are deep and culturally significant, ones that make you think, learn something, and have a conversation on the way home,” she said. “Farce is not only delightful to direct and really fun, but all I’m hoping all of us get out of this, including the audience, is a sense of relief. I’m all about eating your vegetables, but sometimes we need a donut.”

While the doughy confection plays a part, the relief part of course isn’t easily found for the characters in the comedy, where all sorts of things go wrong, people aren’t who they seem, and all the usual farce clichés and tropes apply.

Which is a good thing, Rademacher said. 

“It can be boring to see something that you’ve seen over and over again if you get ahead of it, if you know what’s coming next, but the flip side of that is that those stereotypes and clichés or things that we recognize are universal and easy to understand. The idea of farce is to turn things inside out, so that we set something up that you understand right away, but then we play with your expectations. We can either fulfill them delightfully or upend them. And it’s funny either way.”

To be sure, the exquisite timing and reliance on hitting marks and providing all the cue lines on time for the side-by-side scenes can be hard work for the cast and crew, especially staging Unnecessary Farce at SBCC’s intimate and semi-surround space of the Jurkowitz Theatre.

“There are so many different layers going on, two rooms that are happening at the same time, so you’ve got to be precise,” Rademacher said. “If somebody misses a short cue line in one room, or leaves open a door that’s supposed to be shut, everything can go off really quickly. We just keep working on tightening things up.” 

The audience, on the other hand, has no need to practice anything other than the willingness to go along for the ride and be entertained. 

“There’s nothing controversial or challenging about this show,” Rademacher said. “It’s just supposed to be funny and joyful. That’s a pretty noble purpose right now.”