Exploring anger, rage and loss: Vortex Theatre stages world premiere of 'Art of Raising Anything'

In 1992, Pepsi-Cola sponsored a sweepstakes contest in Manila, Philippines.

Consumers had to find a winning number underneath their soda bottle caps to win a great deal of money.

The company produced 800,000 winning caps by accident. Pepsi swiftly voided the contest, provoking anger, hatred and violence in the Philippines. People rioted and set cars ablaze. Someone threw a homemade bomb at a Pepsi truck, killing a teacher and a small child.

Opening at the Vortex Theatre in a world premiere on Friday, Feb. 2, John Dayton Cerna’s play “The Art of Raising Anything” explores the resulting anger, rage and loss.

“The company royally screwed up,” the playwright said in a telephone interview from his Washington, D.C., home. “As a writer, I thought, ‘This is a play. This is enormous.’ “

Dayton Cerna set his fictionalized version in a working class town he called Dismuke in a nameless state.

“It’s a very depressed town,” he said. “There’s a man who lost his wife to cancer with two children and he’s enraged.”

The contest creator, Cathy, impetuously drives four hours to Dismuke to apologize to the enraged people who live there. But she is unprepared for the tempestuous anger that greets her, just as she is unprepared for the love she feels for one family in particular.

Dayton Cerna learned about the original event from a newspaper story.

Cathy “is about 60 years old,” he said; “she’s worked for (the fictionalized company) Popsit all her life. She drives to the home of this family because the father wrote her an email. She’s so moved by it. She’s not prepared for the rage.

“The town could be in upstate New York, it could be Ohio; it could be anywhere,” he said. “Some of the actors have adopted Southern accents.”

Dayton Cerna is no stranger to tragedy. His only sister was murdered in 2010. He says his heart was broken in “a hundred places” and that writing has helped him to heal and remain sane.

“She was killed in Spain, in Seville,” he said. “Another theme the play explores is loss. She was the only big rock ‘n’ roll sister that I had.”

The GLAAD Media Award-nominated playwright decided to premiere his play at the Vortex after visiting Albuquerque.

“I spent some time in Albuquerque in 2019,” he said, “and I fell in love with the theater community.”

The production will launch with a preshow opening night cocktail event, with Dayton Cerna making a short informational talk about the play. A playwright’s circle will form on Saturday, Feb. 3, for local playwrights with Dayton Cerna.