Review: Red, White, and Tuna

Review: Red, White, and Tuna | Bailey Theatre Company | Bailey, CO | Curtain Up! | Eric Fitzgerald

Bailey Theatre Company is currently offering up a spirited take on Red, White, and Tuna, directed by Tom Bruett and anchored by two local favorites, Jeff Jesmer and Matt Hindmarch. Written by Jaston Williams, Joe Sears, and Ed Howard, the show drops us back into the wonderfully oddball world of Tuna, Texas, where the Fourth of July brings out both the town’s pride and its peculiarities. Jesmer and Hindmarch slip in and out of characters with the kind of ease and mischief that make these plays work, giving the evening its charm and its heartbeat.

Walking into the Glen Isle space, you’re reminded how much atmosphere can do for a comedy like this. The old lodge has a lived‑in warmth — creaky floors, timbered walls, that soft mountain hush outside — and it gives the production an easy intimacy. Nothing about the setup feels fussy or over‑produced; it’s the kind of room where you can actually hear an audience breathe together.

Bruett’s direction gives the evening a steady, grounded shape, and there’s an obvious affection for the material in the way he lets each character have room to breathe. Still, the production could use a sharper comedic engine. The show has built‑in urgency — those quick flips, those snap‑fast transitions — and this staging sometimes settles into a slower rhythm that softens the punchlines. It never loses its shape, but there are stretches when the pace softens, and a touch more urgency would have let the humor snap the way the script is built to do.

Jeff Jesmer & Matt Hindmarch | Photo Credit: Sue Ryan Photography

What truly carries the performance, though, is the sheer pleasure of watching Jesmer and Hindmarch dive into this parade of Tuna citizens. Jesmer has a knack for finding the emotional center of even the most ridiculous characters, giving them just enough sincerity to keep the comedy from tipping into cartoonish territory. Hindmarch, meanwhile, leans into the physicality of the quick-change chaos, snapping between personas with a wiry, mischievous energy. Together, they create that familiar Tuna alchemy — two actors building an entire town from voice, posture, and attitude — and even when the pacing wobbles, their commitment keeps the audience leaning in.

Much of the action centers on the long-anticipated marriage of Arles (Hindmarch) and Bertha (Jesmer), and those scenes give the show its emotional through-line — a little sweetness tucked inside all the small-town absurdity. But some of the sharpest moments come from the side detours, like the bit built around the “ripe” potato salad, which lands with the kind of goofy precision the play needs. It’s one of those scenes where the actors, the audience, and the script lock into the same comic wavelength, and you can feel the room lean forward just a little.

Jeff Jesmer | Photo Credit: Sue Ryan Photography

Allen Jones’s set design is as bare bones as it gets, but in this room, that simplicity works. The Glen Isle space doesn’t need elaborate scenery; a few well-chosen pieces give Jesmer and Hindmarch all the room they need to inhabit their characters. Johnathan Underwood’s costumes are spot-on for the material — practical, character-defining, and built for the script’s rapid-fire changes. Bri Angle’s lighting is modest yet effective, adapting to the lodge’s quirks and keeping the focus where it needs to be. Rick Reid’s sound design brings a welcome clarity and polish to the evening, supporting the comedy without ever overwhelming it.

As always at Glen Isle, the experience is shaped as much by the setting as by the show itself. The lodge runs warm on a summer afternoon — part of its rustic charm, I suppose — but the audience took it in stride, settling into the easy camaraderie that Bailey Theatre Company seems to cultivate so naturally. What truly anchors the evening, though, are Jesmer and Hindmarch, two local favorites whose command of character work gives the production its pulse. They slip between personas with a fluency that feels almost instinctive, building the town of Tuna through quick shifts, sharp details, and a shared sense of play. In a space where community and creativity matter more than polish, Red, White, and Tuna fits right in: a little homemade, full of heart, and carried by artists who clearly relish bringing these eccentric Texans to life.

The production runs through July 19, and it makes for an easy, enjoyable drive up into the Bailey area — a quick escape into the mountains that pairs well with the homespun charm of seeing a show at Glen Isle.