Parson’s Nose Theater is bringing back a double bill by popular demand this weekend: Bertolt Brecht’s unflinching examination of moral compromise under Nazi rule paired with a comedic radio sketch about Martians landing in Oxnard. “Aliens! Foreign and Domestic!” opens Saturday, January 31, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, February 1, at 3 p.m. at the theater’s home in a converted 100-year-old mortuary chapel in downtown Pasadena.
The evening opens with “The Private Life of the Master Race,” Brecht’s domestic sketches from 1930s Nazi Germany. In one sketch, a husband and wife confront moral anguish after betraying a neighbor. In another, a storm trooper manipulates a worker to identify dissenters. Settings span Frankfurt, Augsburg, Cologne, and Lübeck—Brecht’s exploration of how fear and political affiliation corrode families and friendships. The episodic structure invites audiences to reflect on the moral compromises individuals make under oppressive power.
The program pivots sharply with “War of the Worlds…Pasadena,” a radio sketch comedy penned by Lance Davis, the theater’s co-founder and artistic director. Martians invade—not the East Coast, but Oxnard, California.
Since May 2000, Davis and co-founder Mary Chalon have established the nonprofit, producing over 85 professional 90-minute adaptations and reaching more than 80,000 adults and children across Los Angeles County. The theater operates as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with Actors’ Equity status and has received support from the City of Pasadena, the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, and the California Arts Council.
“Aliens! Foreign and Domestic!” will run on Sunday, Feb. 1, at 3 p.m. Parson’s Nose Theater, 95 North Marengo Avenue, Pasadena. For more information, call (626) 345-5116 or visit https://www.tix.com/ticket-sales/parsonsnose/1475/event/1453692. Ticket prices: $15 to $30.
