The Antelope Party

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Where have you gone, Princess Celestia? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you. And we need the Elements of Harmony now more than ever. If you got those references, then you've probably spent time with the animated series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. If, as a grown-up, you've created costumes based on characters from the show and congregated with other like-minded fans, then you're probably a 'brony.' Brony culture (captured in the 2012 documentary Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony) is the jumping-off point for Eric John Meyer's THE ANTELOPE PARTY. But Meyer's story jumps the fences and heads for the open range of American populism and paranoia. It's set in a Rust Belt Pennsylvania mill town-the kind of place where one expects the local diner to be stuffed with a mix of hardscrabble former steelworkers and national reporters interrogating them about their voting preferences over bacon and eggs. It's a place where the misfit brony men and 'pegasisters' who gather every week to share stories and play games based on the Hasbro series walk warily outdoors, their 'cutie marks' covered up, lest they be jumped by the intolerant. If we've learned one thing about how fascism works (and brother, are we learning a lot), it's that elevating tribal grievances over harmony and creating a hated Other is the path to power. So when Maggie, the glamorous 'Twilight Sparkle' of the gang, twists their arms (or forelegs) to join with her father's 'Antelope Party' (a neighborhood watch group with darker political aspirations), things take a sharp turn for the allegorical. Meyer has an undeniable flair for illustrating how group dynamics shift once the fear factor enters the room…." Kerry Reid, Chicago Tribune "The show starts with a comically underattended gathering of the Rust Belt Ponies Meetup Group, complete with homemade costumes and wistful misfits. But from there Meyer takes an odd, fascinating turn: the neighborhood where the misfits meet has become an outpost for a watch group that evolves into a militant political organization with an arcane, quasi-Wagnerian mythology. Meyer is brilliant at showing how fantasy play may produce a brony or a neo-Nazi.…" Tony Adler, Reader "Meyer gives life and breath and love to all of these oddly human misfits, they're relatable in their common quest to find their tribe. Simultaneously, we're compelled to consider the consequences of a tribe 'going wrong.' In conversation with our time, it offers insight into the humanization and justification of the 'bad guys'.... A thought-provoking romp that's not to be missed." Kelsey McGrath, Perform.Ink