Gateway to Babylon

The infamous “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gay service members could be extrapolated into a slogan for the Iraq War, where the media and Congress didn’t ask the hard questions and the Bush administration didn’t tell much of anything resembling the truth. Now, in Jeff Key’s one-man play The Eyes of Babylon, a gay Marine takes a hard look at the original policy and the conflict in Iraq and comes out with some unsettling and challenging answers.

“There’s a lot in it about his being gay, and also about his befriending a lot of the children and the people that were around the places he was in,” explains Steven Tangedal, artistic director . “I wouldn’t call it totally anti-war. It’s definitely going to be swayed in the ‘don’t-ask-don’t-tell’ way — and that he felt, from what he saw, that we were not justified in being there.”

The critically lauded play begins its Denver debut tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the New Denver Civic Black Box Cabaret, 721 Santa Fe Drive, and continues through September 14, with weekend matinees at 3 p.m. Tickets are $15 to $25; veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan get in free. Visit www.theatregroup.org or call 303-309-3773.
Aug. 21-23, 7:30 p.m.; Sun., Aug. 24, 3 p.m.; Aug. 25-29, 7:30 p.m.; Sat., Aug. 30, 3 & 7:30 p.m.; Sept. 2-5, 7:30 p.m.; Sat., Sept. 6, 3 & 7:30 p.m.; Sun., Sept. 7, 3 & 7:30 p.m., 2008