Broadminded: Science and Surplus

The latest show from the all-woman comedy troupe Broadminded, Science and Surplus explores the comical side of contemporary science and technology. Among other things, the group examines how technology affects relationships and how Pluto feels about its new sub-planetary status. Working with minimal sets, props and very simple costuming (the group typically performs in jeans and Broadminded T-shirts), the group focuses their creative energy squarely on the writing, where it belongs. The simplicity is not without its cleverness. Inevitably a sketch will come up that requires one of the women to play a man. The iconic visual shorthand they’ve come up with for this is actually quite effective: women playing men wear baseball caps (usually backward).