Trumbo

Curious Theatre Company, Colorado, Denver

About the Show

In this important American election season, Trumbo is both timely and provocative, echoing today’s newspaper headlines about The Patriot Act and The War on Terror. In 1947, Montrose, Colorado native Dalton Trumbo stood up to the House Un-American Activities Committee and was blacklisted as one of the infamous “Hollywood Ten.” The legendary screenwriter (The Brave One, Exodus, Kitty Foyle, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, Lonely Are the Brave, Spartacus, Roman Holiday, Papillon) and novelist (Johnny Got His Gun), was fired from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and imprisoned for a year in 1950. After his release, Trumbo, blacklisted and “broke as a bankrupt’s bastard,” struggled for 14 years to find work — even at a small fraction of his former fees. Along the way, using aliases, he won Academy Awards for both The Brave One and Roman Holiday. His letters, brilliant, biting, and hilarious, tell the story of a family’s survival and one stubborn artist’s crusade to break the blacklist. Trumbo is a story of an American who took on Congress, Hollywood and a fearful nation…and won.