written by Topher Payne
directed by John Heimbuch
May 30 – June 21, 2026
at the Crane Theater
It’s 1950, and the government is purging the “enemies within”. Two U.S. State Department employees, Bob and Norma, have a great track record of rooting out Communists. Now, they’ve been tasked with identifying sexual deviants among their ranks. There’s just one problem: Both Bob and Norma are gay, and have married each other’s partners as a carefully constructed cover.
Inspired by the true story of the earliest stirrings of the American gay rights movement, madcap classic sitcom-style laughs give way to provocative drama as two “All-American” couples are forced to stare down the closet door.
Performance Schedule
- Saturday, May 30, 7:30pm (Opening)
- Sunday, May 31, 2:00pm
- Thursday, June 4, 7:30pm
- Friday, June 5, 7:30pm
- Saturday, June 6, 7:30pm
- Monday, June 8, 7:30pm (Pay What You Can)
- Thursday, June 11, 7:30pm
- Friday, June 12, 7:30pm
- Saturday, June 13, 7:30pm
- Sunday, June 14, 2:00pm (Audio Described)
- Wednesday, June 17, 7:30pm
- Thursday, June 18, 7:30pm
- Saturday, June 20, 7:30pm
- Sunday, June 21, 2:00pm (Closing)
Ticketing
Tickets are pick-your-price: $30 – $70.
Ticket sales only cover a portion of what it actually costs to present our plays.
For ticket sales to completely cover our production expenses, a ticket would cost $50.
You choose your price! If you are able to pay the true cost of $50, we ask you to do so. Or, pay as little as $30, or choose a more generous amount and help support our accessible ticket program.
A limited number of $15 Economic Accessibility tickets are available starting one month before the performance date, for anyone who needs to pay less, no questions asked. Limit 2 per order.
Student tickets are FREE. Limit 2 per order. Available starting one month before the performance date.
Monday, June 8 at 7:30pm is our Pay What You Can night, with all tickets as low as $10.
All seating is general admission, though we’re happy to make accommodations or handle special seating requests.
Location
The Crane Theater is located in Northeast Minneapolis, one block off of Stinson, between Hennepin and Broadway.
Crane Theater
2303 Kennedy St NE #120
Minneapolis, MN 55413
There is a parking lot next to the venue, and additional street parking in the area.
Accessibility
Audio Described on Sunday, June 14 at 2:00pm by Laura Wiebers.
The Crane Theater is wheelchair accessible through an exterior lift.
About the Playwright
Topher Payne (playwright) was a 2017 Lambda Literary Award finalist for Perfect Arrangement, which was also received the 2014 M. Elizabeth Osborn Award from The American Theatre Critics Association. Perfect Arrangement had its Off-Broadway premiere in 2015, and has since been produced around the world. It is published by Samuel French, alongside his works Angry Fags and Evelyn in Purgatory. His latest play, A First Lady’s Guide to Killing the President, premiered in September 2025.
Topher is a seven-time nominee and three-time winner of The Gene-Gabriel Moore Playwriting Award, and his holiday comedy Let Nothing You Dismay received the Suzi Bass Award for Outstanding World Premiere. Readers of Creative Loafing named him Atlanta’s Best Local Playwright nine times, and he was selected as one of “Ten Playwrights You Should Know” by Southern Theatre magazine. The New York Times called him “a deft and witty writer.”
In 2018, Topher was inducted into The Georgia Theatre Hall of Fame. In 2022, Topher married artist & playwright Charlie James Cote. They live outside Atlanta with a dog, a cat, and a passel of imaginary friends who give them not one moment’s peace.
Topher can found online at topherpayne.com.
About the Director
John Heimbuch (director) is the Artistic Director and co-founder of Walking Shadow, where he has directed numerous productions including Reboot, Cabal, Hatchet Lady, Marie Antoinette, The Aliens, Schiller’s Mary Stuart, Drakul, The Transdimensional Couriers Union, and the Ivey Award winning Compleat Female Stage Beauty.
His original plays and adaptations include Friends & Lovers, Mae West and the Trial of Sex, William Shakespeare’s Land of the Dead, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, S Gunter Klaus & the Story Before, The Three Musketeers, and many others, several of which have been published by Concord Theatricals and produced all over the world.
Over the past several years he has been performing Charlie Bethel’s epic solo adaptions of Beowulf, Gilgamesh, and The Odyssey at theatres, colleges, festivals, bars, and backyards around the United States.
In addition to his stage work, John has a degree in Cinema Production, and has been making short films for the past decade. He also performs with the steampunk band Bad September. He lives in Minneapolis with his spouse Amy and their judgy little cat Trotsky.
