Picketwire Players’ ‘Fahrenheit 451’ Brings Ray Bradbury’s Warning to the Stage

Description: The Picketwire Players deliver a powerful production of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, exploring censorship, technology, books and independent thought in La Junta September 10 - 13, 2026... Photo Description: Left to right: Elizabeth Leonard as Mildred, Jaedyn Gronemeyer as Alice, Megan Crawford as Helen. Photo by John Lockhart.

The house lights go down. It’s dark, so dark that it’s hard to make out the objects on the stage. You’ve already seen that the set is starkly minimal—just a bunch of black boxes, quite a change from Picketwire’s usual colorful and sometimes elaborate sets.

You see movement. Someone walks onto the stage and stands there, just a dark shape in the middle of more darkness. A single light finally shines on one person—a man named Montag (Tom Seaba) who is dressed in what appears to be fireman’s clothing, loudly expounding about how fire makes him excited. He gives it out for free, he says, “and then everything is solved.”

Picketwire Players’  production of Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451” begins.

Left to right: Angelica Leija-Martenson as Clarisse and Tom Seaba as Guy Montag. Photo by John Lockhart 

This play is tough. Tough to produce and tough to see. But director Ashley Jo Kelley took it on and fit all the pieces together--from cast, to sets, to costumes, to lighting, to sound, to music-- with the end result being both a tribute to Bradbury and a caution to the rest of us.

As you may know, Fahrenheit 451 is the temperature at which books burn. Bradbury turned the role of firemen upside-down, so that instead of putting fires out, they start them—by burning books.

left to right: Samule Leonard as Black, Demian Ryder as Beatty, Tom Seaba as Guy Montag Megan Crawford as Mrs. Hudson, Zoa Sullivan as Holden. Photo by John Lockhart.

Montag is a fireman because his father and grandfather were firemen. He is used to just doing his job and doing what he’s told. But in spite of his proclamation above, he has started to struggle over just what it is he’s doing, and why he’s doing it. What is it about books that makes them so bad?

On the job, he is antagonized by his fire captain, the hardcore Beatty (Demian Ryder—who may have more lines than the rest of the cast put together). “Nothing worth knowing is the only truth worth knowing,” he tells Montag, suspecting  that Montag is beginning to have questions. Beatty is a complex character who thinks he is giving people gifts when he sets books on fire. And yet, he is constantly quoting from books! He gloats over the book burnings and takes immense joy in the creation of a mechanical hound that Montag, to his later regret, helped build. Beatty nearly salivates over the idea of turning the beast loose to sniff out “bad” people and kill them. He delivers long, raging, monologues that become insane rants when his own internal struggles are increasingly harder for him to control.

Montag’s conflicting thoughts are amplified when he meets a young lady, Clarisse (Angelica Leija-Martenson). He’s never met anyone like her. She exemplifies freedom and individualism, concepts that he never thought about before. He’s both scared of her and intrigued by her. She asks if he’s happy. He hadn’t thought about that. Is he? He doesn’t know. She coaxes him to do “silly’ things like drinking  rainwater. knows that he’s a fireman, and shocks him by asking, “Have you ever read any of the books you burn?”

In stark contrast to Clarisse, Montag’s wife, one-dimensional Mildred (Elizabeth Leonard) spends most of her time inside their house, watching the "shows” broadcast on a large screen on  the living room wall, calling the people she sees “her family,”  and sometimes having what she is made to believe is a starring role in the dramas projected on the stage’s back screen. 

(Keep an eye on the back screen. It almost becomes a character in itself. The talking heads and the mechanical hound are more than a bit creepy.)

After meeting Clarisse, Montag becomes extremely interested in people’s fascination with books. What do they have to do with freedom and individualism? he wonders. Later he meets a woman whose books are about to be burned. She is adamant about giving him one of her books, which she treats as children. This confuses him, but he is horrified as to how this situation ends. Now he even more determined  to discover why books are so fascinating, which of course comes with consequences.

One more important character is Clarisse’s grandmother and former professor, Faber (Heather Pidcock-Reed). She is feeling guilty for not doing more to stop the book burnings. Reluctantly, she agrees to help Montag (using an electronic device that might seem familiar), which ultimately results in tragedy.

There are ten more characters that round out the cast, each adding to the performance. Some actors portray several characters, which isn’t always easy. How does it end? Just a hint:  There’s more than one way to preserve essential information.

Bravo to the whole cast and crew for succeeding in telling this difficult but important story.

Left to right: Zoa Sullivan as Holden, Samule Leonard as Black, Demian Ryder as Beatty

Why should you see this play? I can’t do any better than a quote by Tom Seaba on the Picketwire Players Facebook page: “ It offers a visceral, immersive warning about censorship, technology addiction, and the loss of independent thought. It is a warning to us about contact digital distraction, shrinking attention spans, and surging book censorship.”

As a life-long reader and retired librarian, I appreciate that a list of local public libraries is included in the program, with this suggestion: “In the spirit of this play, please support your local library.”  Always a great idea! But beware: books make you think!

“Fahrenheit 451” will be performed at 7:30 p.m. September 10, 11, and 12 and at 2:30 p.m. September 13. Box office hours are from 5:30-7 p.m. Tickets can also be purchased online at picketwireplayers.org and will also be available at the box office prior to performances. Note: the play lasts about three hours. There is a 15-minute intermission.

Watch the Video Here:

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Picketwire Center Presents Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451” September 10–13

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