PINCKNEY–When Greater Tuna, a story set in a fictional Texas town called Tuna, was first produced in Austin, Texas in 1981, even the snooty New Yorker Magazine called it “sharp, satiric & funny.” Thirty-five years later, the show is one of the most often produced shows in the history of the American theater. The show, mounted by The Dio Dinner & Entertainment theater in Pinckney does solid justice to the show, right down to the tuna casserole option on the buffet line.

The Original Greater Tuna, as well as the sequels that the playwrights have spawned off the success of the original, is meant to capture and lampoon small-town, trailer-park and shack, grit-and-Sanka café culture of a rural Texas town where everyone knows everyone and the radio hosts are so intellectually challenged that they can forget to turn the switch on to actually broadcast the show. These are people who, if they stopped to show you their vacation pictures, would think nothing of showing you fifty black photos where they left the lens cap on.

Thurston Wheelis and Arles Struvie broadcast from mornin’ til evenin’ in a “studio” that is on the second floor of the Tuna General Store. And it’s a pretty big day after the chatter about the school essay contest results and humane society news when the local hangin’ judge was found dead wearing a one-piece bathing suit, and the Smut Snatchers of the New Order are about to raid the local library to delete words from the dictionary that they find offensive, and remove books they object to, like Romeo & Juliet. “It’s about teenage sex.”

Actors Jared Schneider and Nick Pettengill perform 20 characters with multiple lightning-speed (in some cases) costume changes, several of them women characters, from radio host Thurston Wheelis to society matron and vice president of the Smut Snatchers Vera Karp. The two have good chemistry and good command over the changing characters.

On some level, Greater Tuna, has the feel or structure of Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegone if it was brought to the stage, though without the charm of the Minnesota Lutherans. The show’s challenges are not in the multiple costume changes, but rather in the script. In 1980, the satire may have seem cutting. The radio hosts of OKKK–a nod to the Klan–casually riff on the racist culture of the residents. The show also nods to the 70s’ TV classic “All in the Family” in the way it brings racism and sex and racial ignorance to the fore with laughs. But like “All in the Family” seems a bit shaggy today, so too do the people of Tuna and the dialogue of Jaston Williams, Joe Sears and Ed Howard. Yes, the U.S. has had an unmistakable resurgence of racism in the last decade, so it’s not like the attitudes and satire of Greater Tuna aren’t relevant. But as I watched Schneider and Pettengill bring their considerable chops to the task, including funny turns in drag as the lionesses of Tuna, I was rewriting the show in my head to feel more up to date.

Matt Tomich’s set, capturing the feel of the General Store makes for an apt and engaging backdrop to the story and characters. I especially liked the way he kept the static prop action going deep into the set where I’m not sure any patrons could actually see–aged ice skates hanging on a hook. The scythe and hoary looking saw mounted to the store façade look as menacing as the local Klan wizard who is a regular guest on the radio.

Yeah, it’s not all yucks in Greater Tuna. At the start of the second act, Schneider in drag as former lover of the Judge is hilarious as he talks and even sings to the corpse and runs her hand along the lid of the casket checking for dust. But then the details of how the Judge died comes next, and it’s as squirm inducing as a road-kill luncheon served to a vegetarian.

Steve DeBruyne’s direction keep the show moving and edgy. This show is challenging. Satire is probably the most difficult form of theater to pull off–much harder than straight comedy. This material is going to hit people differently. There was lots of laughing and cackling from the audience, but not everyone and not all at once. Gags about the Klan from people who use “negro” in everyday conversation are not going to land well on everyone today.

But the laughs are plenty with a few cul-de-sacs into awkward and odd. Just like in any small town in America.

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