Henry IV Pt1
Henry IV Pt 1. Last Leaf’s production of Henry IV Pt 1, opened at the Seattle Outdoor Theatre Festival in […]
Romeo and Juliet
Disappointing R and J.
Recycled Shakespeare, Seattle’s newest Repertory Theatre, located in North Seattle, recently produced Romeo and Juliet, a play Shakespeare himself called a tragedy, but what actually has elements of melodrama. Since everybody knows the story of the star-crossed lover’s and has seen the play umpteen times, any production needs a huge dose of imagination to sustain it for two and a half-hours without cuts. In spite of some technical strengths, Brandon Brown’s production lacked both creativity and brevity.
Sorry
Liberology
Written by the critically-acclaimed playwright and Tony award winning librettist, Richard Nelson, Sorry the third part of the Apple Family Triology, produced by Thalia’s Umbrella, opened at 12th Ave Arts, this past weekend. With a stellar cast, composed of some of my favorite Seattle actors, as well as a highly capable director and technical staff, the play was definitely not the thing.
9 Circles
Killing people bothers SOME people
It is difficult to find the words to express how great 9 Circles was!!!!!. Playing at 12th Ave Arts, produced by Strawberry Theatre Workshop, directed by Grey Carter, from a divinely inspired script by Father Bill Cain, S.J., with an exceptionally stellar cast, it was far more than just a good show. It was a spiritually uplifting EXPERIENCE which one rarely has in theatre or indeed in life.
Creature
The Devil is in the Details
The correlation between religious mysticism and mental illness is a fascinating subject but not always a welcome one in certain religious communities. Creature, by Heidi Schreck, which opened at Theater Schmeater this weekend, provided a platform to discuss these issues, as it recounted the “post-partum depression/mystical religious experiences” of Magery Kempe , a late medieval English Christian mystic.
Psycho Beach Party
Cartoonish parody of Surfer, Hitchcock, Mommie Dearest and Slasher movies
An artist run LGBTQ company, Fantastic Z opened a production of Psycho Beach Party by Charles Busch at Eclectic Theatre this weekend. As a left thinking person who believes in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer rights, I would like to have liked this production; however, there is more to entertaining an audience for one hour and forty minutes, without an intermission, than just playing to clichéd, once shocking stereotypes, repetitive, superficial humor and loud screechy voices.
Building
Hilarious Satire of Sincerity in the Corporate World
Unlike film, it isn’t often that Foreign language THEATER comes to Seattle and when it does, people often shy away from it because they feel that only native speakers will be able to understand it. Au contraire mes amis,!!! Now we have Building, by Leonore de Confino a satire produced by D-Boussole a San Francisco based company French-language company, which was so well acted in the French tradition of physical comedy, and so well-directed, by Frédéric Patto, that even had I not known a word of French, I would have understood what was going on and laughed just as much.
Shooting the Stars
Mixed Reaction Reunion with ex-Lover
Shooting the Stars, an In the Moment Theatre production, opened this past weekend at Eclectic Theatre. It was full of nostalgia, for those of us who went to college in the 1970’s in quintessential activitist college towns like Madison, Wisconsin, where it took place. However, the script played on stereotypes and clichés so much that even two very fine actors and a competent director could not rescue it from sit-com and soap-opera predictability.
Romeo and Juliet
Heavy Teen Consequences for Thinking with your Glands
In 1988-89, when I lived in London, I received weekly Monday night tickets to the RSC; however I never saw as delightful or entertaining a version of any Shakespeare play as the Seattle Shakespeare production of Romeo and Juliet, currently running at the Cornish Playhouse at Seattle Center.
Death of a Salesman
The Underbelly of the American Dream.
Standing ovations often are not well-deserved; however the truly magnificent production of Arthur Miller’s 1949 Pulitzer Prize winner Death of Salesman, at Artswest, more than deserved the standing ovation, it received at the curtain call on Saturday night. Artistic Director Mathew Wright, took this superb well-constructed play, found an outstanding cast and kept me riveted for three hours. It is clearly the best show I have seen all year.