Back from the Donner Party with 'The Flesh Trade'

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Alchemist Productions and Emerald Condor Productions conjure an immersive, darkly comic horror satire to the small stage this month with the debut of writer-director-composer Michael Christopher’s The Flesh Trade. Set in the Old West, Christopher’s intimate modern ragtime musical stars Kendall Yorkey as a prostitute named Honey. Honey also dances burlesque with a couple of others named Candy and Sugar. Candy is a fading Calamity Jane charismatically played by Katie Katschke. Ami Majeskie lends a sweetly nurturing presence as Honey’s “moon sister,” Sugar.

Yorkey is grittily enchanting as the anti-hero who is desperate to get out of the tiny, little town of Tombstone that just might turn into her coffin if she isn’t careful. Nick Firer wields an enticingly sharp and precise menace as the villainous James Reed, a man who has returned from the Donner Party with a taste for human flesh. Reed hires Honey to provide fresh human meat for him and his colleagues.

Christopher cleverly wrestles with dichotomies in an allegorical tale of a woman struggling to break free from an oppressive system that wants more than just her body. Christopher’s Flesh Trade is animated by opposing aesthetics. Horror and revulsion contrast against beauty and shadowy triumph. The story deftly sutures various elements of trashy pop art into a compelling tale illustrating how the powerful tenuously remain in power. Some of the most beautiful songs in the show are catchy little jingles about bestiality, menstruation and murder. The Flesh Trade gracefully claws its way out of the gutter in a strangely inspirational story that dances sensually away from the excessive sentimentality that saddles so much musical theater.

Through Aug. 18 at Alchemist Theatre, 2569 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. For tickets, visit thealchemisttheatre.com.