We don't cover it very rigorously, but Seattle has some excellent children's theater—Linda Hartzell over at Seattle Children's Theater is a great, progressive artistic director and Giant Magnet, until recently, was a powerhouse. (We'll see what happens to that festival, since it lost two of the people who made it what it was—Andrea Wagner and Brian Faker—to a board giving them pushback. Maybe the new GM will keep up the hits... and maybe it won't.)

These institutions regularly program international-caliber shows that don't insult the intelligence of children (Faker once said something to me like: "If I could, I'd line up every bozo clown with balloons and a banjo against a wall and shoot 'em") but regularly expose the idiocy of adults.

The latest example is in this week's Theater News:

The lobby of Seattle Children's Theatre saw its first-ever spontaneous prayer circle earlier this month, as parents from a Christian school asked the good lord to shepherd them through the valley of darkness that is Perô, a Dutch puppet play written for 6-year-olds.

Grown-ups have been complaining about this mournful, gorgeous play about the sentimental education of a baker because it a) admits that divorce is a fact in the world, b) admits that children from different parents sometimes live together, and c) reveals the shocking truth that sometimes grown-ups kiss each other (and sometimes kiss the wrong person).

Never mind that many kids in the audience are all too aware of divorce and Brady Bunch households (and, um, kissing). Never mind that Perô deals with these issues in a light, sensitive, and honest way. Never mind that for the U.S. production, the Dutch director cut the bit where a washerwoman takes off her bra to reveal little puppet breasts with little puppet nipples—not because he thought it was inappropriate, but because the kids tittered for 20 minutes straight and once the adults saw the breasts they forgot everything else about the play. (So who's more filthy-minded? Those who can see breasts and move on with their lives or those who see breasts and fixate?)

Nope. The Christians have to get their chastity belts in a bunch and (once again) demonstrate that they are more infantile than their infants.

(Note to not-dumb Christians everywhere—when are you going to stand and deliver? These fundamentalist halfwits are giving you all a bad name. It is your responsibility, more than anyone's, to fight the moronism in your own ranks.)

Read the whole stupid thing here.

And buy tickets to Perô here.

UPDATE

Because commenters are making it clear that I wasn't being clear: The prayer circle (reportedly rather frantic and freaked-out) happened after seeing the show and was followed by vigorous complaints from parents and teachers. Other adults who've seen the show (particularly at the school matinees) have been making vigorous complaints as well, while the kids have been relaxed and sanguine about the whole thing.