Skip to main content
Since the release of the 1936 anti-cannabis propaganda film Reefer Madness, people have loved watching it while stoned. The film's inane assumptions are hilarious on their own, with warnings of murderous, rape-y rage after a puff of what probably contained less than 1 percent THC at the time.
The film, originally titled Tell Your Children, was repackaged for the exploitation circuit as early as 1938, and then rediscovered in the '70s. In 1998, writer Kevin Murphy adapted the story of high school preps-turned-drug-dealing miscreants into a stage musical of the same name—now playing at Funhouse Lounge for the next four weekends in an enthusiastic production by director John Monteverde.
The story centers on star-crossed lovers Jimmy and Mary Lane (Sean Ryan Lamb and Lydia Fleming), whose innocent romance is torn asunder by the devil's lettuce. The scene following Jimmy's first puff is a laugh riot, the rest of the cast gyrating in grass skirts and chanting with bongo drums as he laughs maniacally. Costume designer Mandy Khoshnevisan elevates the show with a period-appropriate wardrobe and also plays the role of Mae—the guilty girlfriend of a pot pusher—with dramatic, Old World femininity.
The pot-crazed characters in Reefer are the worst imaginable human beings: torturing animals, groping their mothers, selling their own baby for weed. Cast members put their all into the over-the-top characters, and most of them can actually sing.
Reefer fits in perfectly with the decommissioned carnival vibe at the Funhouse, where you're greeted with the face of a hundred leering clowns. The casual seating arrangements and multicolored spotlights put you in an appropriately trippy mindset for enjoying the punch line to the joke that is prohibition. I had prepared myself with a Cherry Kush spliff, which I warn will tempt you to order noisy chips and salsa from the bar next to the stage.
"This is not the Keller," announced the emcee before the curtain parted on opening night. "Have fun, cheer, laugh out loud!" The audience is encouraged to interact with the story, gasp when Principal Carroll explains the risk of marijuana to your children, and holler a victory cry when innocent Mary Lane goes all dominatrix after her first puff of the stuff. The room explodes in giggles when Jesus (played by Doug Dean with a stoner-surfer angle) ambles onstage in a gold lamé loincloth to say, "Try taking a hit of God, Jimmy. Do you think you can handle the high?"
But fortunately, at the Funhouse, there's no risk of anyone in the audience being too high for the room.
SEE IT: Reefer Madness: The Musical is at Funhouse Lounge, 2432 SE 11th Ave., funhouselounge.com. 7 pm Thursday-Saturday, through July 23. $25 advance, $30 at the door. Buy a Thursday ticket for a free drink at the show.
Willamette Week