In recent seasons of Santa Barbara theater, Sara Rademacher has directed heady dramas such as 2025’s Indecent and 2026’s Animal Farm. “In the last few years, I’ve spent my professional life inside gorgeous, moving, poignant plays that directly reflect current events,” she says. “Then, I would go home and continue navigating those same events in my own life.” Rademacher describes the sense of relief she felt when embarking on directing SBCC’s upcoming comedy, Unnecessary Farce, a show she says has purpose in unencumbering the audience with the trauma of the outside world for a few hours. “It’s a delightfully cliché motel-room sting operation, led by a couple of adorably earnest cops trying their best to rid their small city of corruption,” she says. “Doors slam, pants fall, justice is pursued, and love is in the air.”
Rademacher commends the cast for their dedicated work in rehearsal, citing the tremendous precision, athleticism, and trust necessary for this style of comedy. “Farce,” she says, “while seemingly lighthearted and often very ridiculous, is extremely technical…. If the timing isn’t perfectly calibrated, the result can be catastrophic.”
Not only do the performers need to manage tight timing and exactitude in staging, there’s also emotional intention and commitment to character behind the hijinks. “As we refine the mechanics of hitting every beat, we also have to motivate each action truthfully…. An actor has to have a real reason to sprint full-force at a door — and the audience has to believe in that intention — for it to be funny when it flies open just before impact,” says Rademacher, adding: “Comedy is serious business.”
Unnecessary Farce, written by Paul Slade Smith, runs April 15–May 2 in the Jurkowitz Theatre at SBCC (721 Cliff Dr.), and features some of Santa Barbara’s best comic performers. See theatregroupsbcc.com/current-season/unnecessary-farce.
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