Results tagged “play”

Back in 1986, Lily Tomlin won a Tony Award appearing in Jane Wagner's solo show, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, which was a (mostly) comedic double-take on having lived through the consciousness-raising '70s. Now Balagan Theatre is reviving the show (through August 29; Thurs-Sat 8 p.m., Sun 2 p.m.; tickets: $15 online, $20 at the door), with the gifted Terri Weagant as your cracked guide to a cracked universe.

Strawberry Theatre Workshop is building a repertoire of person-in-society plays that, recently, have included an intriguing look at filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl; a laugh-out-loud, musical take on the life of Johannes Gutenberg; and now a captivating portrait of Joseph (aka John) Merrick, the Elephant Man. It's like having a live Biography Channel with really eclectic tastes.

Intiman's Obi-Wan is John Campion, a veteran performer with a rap role sheet a mile long, and one that includes references to his work with Kevin Kline, Linda Hunt, and F. Murray Abraham. You will understand his Iago like never before. He will speak Shakespeare, but with his own vicious cadence. He will bite off the ends of words, and his body will seem to flood with bile. He will offer mean-spirited putdowns and cough out a fake, social laugh. He will never be likable, but always charismatic as he plots his vengeance.

It hasn't even opened yet, but the Intiman has just announced the Arin Arbus production of Othello is getting eight extra performances, thanks to brisk ticket sales: "Tickets are on sale now for shows on Tuesday, August 4 at 7:30 pm; Wednesday, August 5 at 2 pm and 7:30 pm; Thursday, August 6 at 7:30 pm; Friday, August 7 at 8 pm; Saturday, August 8 at 2 pm and 8 pm; and Sunday, August 9 at 2 pm (closing)." Also, on Tuesdays, admission is $25 for adults (tickets are always $10 for the 25-and-under set). Directed by Arin Arbus, this "terrific" (NY Times) Othello was originally produced in New York and sold out its February run, then came back in April. This plus the $50K from the NEA should keep Intiman's lights on.

Terrific. Goddamn terrific, that's what. Intiman's A Thousand Clowns (through June 17, tickets: $40-$55, $10 for 25-and-under) is like if Holden Caulfield grew up, got a job writing for a kids' TV show, and then suddenly quit, desperately angry about having become a "phony." On the one hand, it's as time- and place-stamped as can be--there's the hilarity of dialing the weather lady on the phone, and an impromptu "Guess that New York borough accent" contest--but on the other, these people are such characters, the play sucks you right in. We had no idea three hours had passed at its close.

Legend has it that Tom Hanks took the part of Picasso in the first reading of Steve Martin's play Picasso at the Lapine Agile back in the mid-nineties. Martin tried multiple times to get this play about the big forces of the Twentieth Century--embodied by Einstein and Picasso--swirling around a Parisian bar made into a movie without success, but if he could ever get the project together, and if Hanks could take some time off from his busy ripping-off-Umberto-Eco career, and if, perhaps, Martin himself could take on a role...well, let us tell you right now--that movie would fucking suck.

Frost/Nixon plays tonight at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 1 and 6:30 p.m. at the Paramount Theatre. Tickets are $18-$60 plus fees.

In 1941, two of the time's most loved comedy stars, Cary Grant and Irene Dunne, were united in Penny Serenade, a three-hankie picture in which they played a couple who lose their little daughter.

There are two ways to do Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: you can have Jekyll be the good guy--and he's the obvious good guy, or at least the traditional good guy, a doctor, who functions in society and is respected by peers and whatnot--or you can have Hyde, a mere Mr., be the good guy. Hyde is, of course, always the bad guy, the brute, the animal, the drunk, the pusher-downer of children. He's a "bad guy", but you can tell the story of Jekyll and Hyde in such a way that Hyde is the focal point of the audience's sympathy.

Many years ago now, Capitol Hill was gay as shit. Maybe you think it's gay now, but it's gay like drinking a weak glass of Tang, rather than emptying a spoonful of the mix directly on your tongue.

About halfway in to Will Eno's Tragedy, a tragedy (2 p.m. April 5, $12), we began to suspect the playwright was suffering from insomnia. There's a dark, plastic, wandering nature to the play that signals a mind on the edge of--but kept from--sleep. Depending on how recently you've been afraid of the dark, you'll be right back there, hearing your breath, your heartbeat, and strange noises, and the night will seem like a suffocating cold, black ocean, everything and everyone you know a small flicker that is guttering out.

Pulling off a Merchant at all is not easy. It's a play that pokes its nose into disreputable harbors, taking in the sights in a queasy, sea-voyaging way that keeps you pining for dry land. And it turns around an infamously over-determined character, Shylock, the Jewish loan broker.

Imagine paying just $20 to be herded into the ramshackle Odd Duck Studio on Pike, with its secondhand seats, to stare at a set consisting of a few scrap boards nailed together, and watch a one-act about a plausibly schizophrenic German soldier laboring under crushing poverty, abused by authority, who discovers his mistress is cheating on him and snaps. Also, the cast wears little white masks and occasionally songs are sung in the vicinity of their key.

TOWN HALL TWOSOME: We mentioned yesterday that blogging meteorologist Cliff Mass is showing up at Town Hall tonight (7:30 p.m., $5), but it's a tough choice, because Crosscut's Knute Berger and author Tim Egan are appearing to argue over what we think of as Berger's contrarian Bible: Pugetopolis: A Mossback Takes on Growth Addicts, Weather Wimps, and the Myth of Seattle Nice. God knows you should never take Berger seriously, but it should be entertaining. David Brewster will somehow find the time to moderate.

In the latest edition of her quarterly-ish email newsletter, Marya Sea Kaminksi--actress, writer, director, Genius, and WET co-founder, just to name a few--shared some info on one of her upcoming projects. She's developing a monologue on a timely topic: Seattle's rampant condo abuse, in a work titled Condomillennium: A New Play About Fantasy and Real Estate.

First, a word of warning. Last night we went to see Marat/Sade and this morning cut ourselves so deeply shaving that that darker red blood poured out--not the usual pink nick. And we blame that--with subcutaneous justice--on watching a play where you spend 90-plus minutes waiting for someone to get stabbed. Clearly some sort of blood lust was excited. So if you go to Balagan Theatre's production (running through January 31, tickets $15), and out of sheer perversity you might well want to, watch it around sharp objects afterwards.

Comedy is hard work--our first thought on leaving The Servant of Two Masters (playing at Seattle Shakespeare Company through February 1, tickets $22-$36) was that the cast members must lose about 12 pounds per night. A Cuisinart of one part mustachioed melodrama with one part vaudeville clowning around, this goosed-up production of Carlo Goldoni's commedia play is determined to make you laugh or die trying, and the actors soon erase any conditioned expectation of Shakespearean gravitas.

One of the funny things about theatre is that it's usually better when it's accidentally relevant; if it's served up on a plate, it's like seeing the wild animals at NW Trek from the tram. Not the same as happening across a wild animal on foot.

It sounds like we weren't the only ones who liked the apocalyptic mystery tour boom, now playing at the Rep. Due to "popular demand" for young playwright Peter Sinn Nachtrieb--Dumas, you're washed up, a has-been!--the Rep is adding extra performances on Sunday, December 14, 7:30 pm; Tuesday, December 16, 7:30 pm; Wednesday, December 17, 7:30 pm; Thursday, December 18, 7:30 pm; Friday, December 19, 7:30 pm; Saturday, December 20, 2 pm and 7:30 pm; and Sunday, December 21, 2 pm. As always, if you're 25 and under, tickets are just $10.

Buried under the avalanche of over-writing that is Island of Misfits (Thurs-Sun through December 21, tickets $10) is a very funny parody of the stop-motion holiday classic Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town. In this case, puppeteer Freddie Douglas Black (Geoffery Simmons, with a Poitier-esque suit and throaty rasp) has been called up for the Vietnam draft, so he heads for the snowy north (Canada) with his cynical, lovelorn photographer Snowflake Jones (Kaitie Warren) and stick-in-the-mud production supervisor Herbie Pickle (Patrick Allcorn)--they've got nothing better to do, since they've all been laid off. Stop-motion is cheaper to do in Japan.

Balagan Theatre's Othello (Thursday-Sunday through December 13, tickets $15/$12) is a sordid plunge into an underworld of violence, jealousy, and rage. Three women sitting next to us nearly jumped out of their seats, crying out involuntarily, during fight scenes.

And that noise is the sound of children laughing. Okay, not children, but 30-somethings and under, drawn to the Seattle Rep's Leo K. theatre by a new play from Peter Sinn Nachtrieb, a playwright so cool and cutting edge he lives in the Mission in San Francisco. And of course having two of Seattle's most talented young-ish actors, Chelsey Rives and Nick Garrison, in lead roles doesn't hurt. Not to mention the scenic design genius of Jennifer Zeyl.

TEXAS TEA: For legal reasons we never visit West Seattle, but ArtsWest is putting on the political satire Black Gold, winner of the 2008 Smith Prize for Best New Play, and it sounds like something to see. It opens tonight, so tell us how it is.

WANNA TALK POLITICS?: If too much politics is never enough, Town Hall has got you covered: James Traub will discuss America’s history of evangelizing for democracy, with particular emphasis on Bush's faith-based attempts to spread civic-mindedness. But before Traub kicks things off, Town Hall will have television monitors set up for viewing the Presidential Debate. Traub will even give an analysis of the debate and take a few questions.

Monologist Mike Daisey blasted off from Seattle about a decade ago, but like one of its stealthy mushrooms, the Pacific Northwest keeps popping back up in his life. He was at Town Hall with Reggie Watts a few weeks ago, and then opened Portland's TBA Festival with Monopoly and closed it with If You See Something, Say Something (which has not been presented in Seattle yet and that, fellow Americans, is a minor crime). Daisey has a repertoire of fourteen monologue (so far), including the recent How Theater Failed America, the epic Great Men of Genius, the caustic Monopoly, and the dotcom-ical 21 Dog Years, but on Friday, October 17, Annex Theatre will give the world premiere of his first play, The Moon Is A Dead World. He calls it a "dark fantasia about the Soviet space program." We got him on the line a while back, asked him very short questions, and then got out of the way.

Seattlest Jeremy already reviewed Next Stage's Nexus Project--"A dozen original plays by some of our most talented writers is definitely worth your time, and your money"--but we caught a 3-play sampler down at Bumbershoot and had to chime in. Theater at the festival can be hit-or-miss but this year Next Stage and the Unicycle Collective nailed it (both featuring the terrific Marya Sea Kaminski) with 10-minute bits that fit the setting perfectly. The Nexus Project wraps up September 4-7, so make tracks. Or buy tickets.

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Until this moment, Douglas Carter Beane's off-Broadway-then-on-Broadway, poison-pen skewering of the capacious Hollywood closet was more likely to play at ACT than the more classics-minded, genteel Intiman. (In fact, director Fracaswell Hyman's last Intiman outing was To Kill a Mockingbird.) It turns out last season's Prayer for My Enemy was not a one-off experiment with a play whose characters know what a cell phone is.

There was a woman, born in Germany, who thought Hitler was about the best thing to happen to Germany since, well, ever. Though she never joined the Nazi party, she became a "close personal friend" of Hitler. He supported her work: the documentaries Triumph of the Will (about the 1934 Nazi rallies at Nuremberg) and Olympia (about the 1936 Oympics). She shot a lot of film during the war. Sometimes the extras were trucked in from a concentration camp. When she got married in 1944, she introduced her husband to Adolf. She was a woman who both didn't know about the camps, and only cooperated with the Nazis because she didn't want to be sent to one.

At some point around the beginning of hour three of Bertolt Brecht's , you're finally overwhelmed. Perhaps it was the hot black box theatre, perhaps it was the uncomfortable seats, but as the play reaches it painful conclusion, despite the occasional weaknesses of the production, we found ourselves fighting back tears. That's nothing if not the sign of a great play.