PORT TOWNSEND — “The Eight: Reindeer Monologues” is a comedy starring Santa’s tiny reindeer, but it is not for little girls and boys. Bring your grownup sense of humor to this one, advises Denise Winter.
She plays Dancer, one of the eight sassy creatures delivering the tart monologues in “The Eight,” opening this Wednesday night at the Key City Playhouse, 419 Washington St., in downtown Port Townsend.
The show is an irreverent take on sexual harassment in the workplace — and the workplace is the North Pole, where brown fur and innuendoes fly among the fabled deer: Comet, Cupid, Donner, Dancer, Dasher, Blitzen, Vixen — and Hollywood, Prancer’s replacement for the play’s purposes.
“It’s definitely a dark comedy . . . with a little bit of a jab at political correctness,” said Winter, who besides being Dancer is Key City Public Theatre’s artistic director.
As “The Eight” unfolds, the playgoer also gets to play detective, Winter added. “There’s a little bit of truth and a little bit of lying in everybody’s story,” she said of the reindeer.
The monologues are racy, meaty and loaded with wicked humor, she added.
“I think it will have broad appeal, to every age range,” except one. “Don’t bring children. This is not — bold, underlined not — for children.”
“The Eight” takes the stage at 7 this Wednesday evening and runs Thursdays through Sundays through Dec. 19; a 2:30 p.m. matinee is also slated on the 19th. Tickets are $18 on Friday and Saturday nights, $15 on Sundays and Thursdays, and $10 for students at all shows except this coming Thursday, Dec. 9, which is a pay-what-you-wish performance.
Key City Public Theatre is also presenting two other holiday shows: “The Little Match Girl” through Dec. 12 and Charles Dickens’ “Seven Poor Travellers” Dec. 14 through 22. To find out more and purchase tickets in advance, visit Quimper Sound at 230 Taylor St., Port Townsend, or www.keycitypublictheatre.org, or phone the box office at 360-379-0195.