Past

Past

The Plague Master General-A Bubonic Comedy, Profound and Tragically Amusing

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Yes, Minister and Monty Python humor, Serious subject

Friday night, I had the great honor to review the first performance of the world premiere of The Plague Master General-a Bubonic Comedy, which promises to be an award-winning script and production. This thoroughly entertaining, enlightening production was written and directed by Greg LoProto, produced by Blue Hour Theatre, with an ensemble of astoundingly talented actors at West of Lenin. It was one of the highlights of my 14 years of reviewing.

Past

English- A play about Emigration, Ethnic Identity in a TOEFL classroom

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Loosing your cultural identity in a Classroom in Iran

The Pulitzer prize winning play English, a co-production of Artswest and Seda-Iranian Theatre Ensemble, opened this weekend. The action takes place in 2008 in an English classroom in Iran where four very different students are preparing for the all-important TOEFL prior to emigrating to English speaking countries. Author Sanaz Toossi, uses the students attitudes towards learning English as a vehicle to explore issues of ethnic identity and loss.

Past

Agnes of God at Heart Repertory Theatre

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Dramatic Three-person play examines faith.

Summoned to a convent, Dr. Martha Livingstone, a court-appointed psychiatrist, is charged with assessing the sanity of a novice accused of murdering her newborn. Miriam Ruth, the Mother Superior, determinedly keeps young Agnes from the doctor, further arousing Livingstone’s suspicions. Who killed the infant, and who fathered the tiny victim? Livingstone’s questions force all three women to re-examine the meaning of faith and the power of love, leading to a dramatic, compelling climax.

Past

Spring Shot Homegrown-Festival of Plays Three Weekends

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Spring Play Festival at 18th and Union

Celebrating a “diverse garden” of performance artists, Spring Shot serves as a
launch pad for brand-new dance, theater, burlesque, and comedy shorts over
three weekends. This year, 30+ artists have come to lay roots at 18th & Union,
curated around the theme HOMEGROWN.

Past

How to Write a New Book for the Bible-Taproot Theatre

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“Let’s get it right, down to the details.”

I fear I may be the wrong demographic for How to Write a New Book For the Bible.

Full-time priest and part-time playwright Bill Cain’s heartfelt 2011 play sketches a poignant portrait of a family reckoning with the impending loss of its matriarch. It’s a moving work – Cain based the play off the experience of losing his own mother, and it really shows in the minutiae of family life so lovingly captured by his script. In spite of all the good things about Taproot’s production of the play, though, I couldn’t avoid a niggling feeling that something was… off.

Past

The Bed Trick-World Premier at Seattle Shakes

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World Premier of Comedy

Plays inspired from Shakespeare’s comedies and tragedies have opened in two Puget Sound Theatres this weekend. One of the Bard’s great tragedies’ King Lear inspired Taking Leave at Dukesbay Productions in Tacoma and the lesser known All’s Well that End’s Well, inspired the world premiere of The Bed Trick at Seattle Shakes.

Past

Taking Leave-Profoundly funny piece about the elderly-and King Lear

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What can be funny about an Alzheimer’s patient.

A funny play about Alzheimer’s behavior seems counterintuitive, but then again the basis of humor is tragedy. In Taking Leave, by Nagel Jackson, which opened at Dukesbay Productions in Tacoma, the astute playwright and the shrewd director, Melanie Gladstone, showed how a good dose of humor can alleviate a tragic situation.

Past

Mist & Mirrors: Bacchus and One Thousand Pieces at Pacific Northwest Ballet

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At Pacific Northwest Ballet, Alejandro Cerrudo’s One Thousand Pieces is returning, but they’ve never performed it for a live audience before. In March of 2020, a single dress rehearsal of the piece was the last thing the dancers performed before COVID-19. PNB has since been haunted by Cerrudo’s piece, and now, with Bacchus on the playbill as a delightfully Dionysian opener, Cerrudo’s mirror finally shatters—enchantingly, spectacularly so. 

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