This Week in Theater: Culture Warz, Clowns, Birds, Goats and Opera
Cosmonaut Serge. Photo by Rene Grosbois
Culture wars are often waged by incompetent generals. Vivarium Studio from France have won their latest skirmish with the incompetent generals of the United States' wonderful woeful US Customs and Immigration Services, who are desperately in need of reading the latest bill to revise the processing of traveling artists' visas. With thanks to the Institut Français, Vivarium Studio have mounted their Seattle debut at On the Boards, L'Effet de Serge, a subtle critique of the contemporary love affair with the one-person show and other meta-theatrical issues, done in Philippe Quesne's oblique and amusing style drawing from Buster Keaton as much as from the postdramatic theater of René Pollesch.
April 14-17, 8 pm // On the Boards, 100 W Roy St // Tickets $25 available here; Under 25, Students and RUSH discounts also available
Photo by Michelle Bates
A Contemporary Theatre's "Central Heating Lab" series continues this week with the UMO Ensemble's Red Tiger Tales. There are never, ever enough all-ages events in our allegedly wholesome town. Productions by groups as fine as the UMO Ensemble are therefore always a cause to rejoice. With their expert physical theater, clowning, mime, juggling and masquerades, UMO has been putting together entertaining all-ages audiences for over twenty years from their base on Vashon Island. Red Tiger Tales combines Asian and Persian theatrical elements with the pure child-like joy of circus and should be marvelous - as usual.
April 14-23, 8 pm with additional performances Saturday at 2 pm // Bullitt Cabaret at A Contemporary Theatre, 700 Union St // Tickets $5-$20 (Teen Tix $5), available here
The Northwest Playwrights Alliance continues their play reading series at the Seattle Repertory's PONCHO Forum with Idaho native Adam Harrell's Birds of Paradise. Since one of the big weaknesses in our local scene is easy access to dramatic texts, play readings are often the only way to get a bead on what wrighters are actually thinking about these days. Mr. Harrell's work has explored the theme of fragmented identity for awhile in his work, from the Albert Brooks-ish absurd farce of Purgatory Life to the more touching Neuron Down and Alone and Hated. His current play takes a good step toward a mature understanding of interpersonal rather than identity relations and looks promising.
April 12, 7 pm // PONCHO Forum at Seattle Repertory Theatre, 155 Mercer St // Tickets: Free (but please donate to these folks if at all possible)
Goat-like wisdom. Photo by MJ Sieber
New Century Theater's O Lovely Glowworm is a play about a dead goat. Which is like saying Endgame is about a wheelchair. In fact, Glen Berger's play is a lyrical evocation of that horrible time after World War I when it first became apparent that human beings would probably kill off the entire planet someday, goats and humans both. Sometimes it takes a different perspective on human life to remind human beings what is truly valuable about it: in this case, the caprine point of view forms what is essentially a tribute to being alive. Dedicated to the memory of the late Mark Chamberlin, O Lovely Glowworm promises us "scenes of great beauty." Believe them.
April 13 - May 14, 8 pm // Erickson Theater, 1524 Harvard Ave, Seattle // Tickets $5-$25, available here
Elsewhere, Ghost Light Theatricals are coming off a fascinating rendition of Caryl Churchill's The Skriker to present us a "reality play" adaptation of Aristophanes' The Clouds. Allow me a bit of skepticism about the value of taking a play that is on record as the very first intellectual comedy and turning it into an essay of contemporary television where surely they never heard the word idea. But after the brilliance of The Skriker, they may prove me wrong yet. We shall see.
April 15 - May 1, 7:30 pm // Ballard Underground, 2220 NW Market Street, Seattle // Tickets $12-$15
Lauren Weedman raps.
Seattle favorite Lauren Weedman kicks off the Solo Performance Festival #5 (affectionately known as SPF #5 - Free The Radicals!) at the Theater Off Jackson with her delicately-titled piece, NO...YOU SHUTUP! If you don't know about Lauren Weedman, you're probably not from around here. Her comic genius here has turned to the subject of families and adoption especially among gays and lesbians, but truthfully none of that will matter once Ms. Weedman begins to launch into her comic observations on the fraility and absurdity of people no matter what they call themselves. It has been said to be better than Cats.
April 14 - April 17, 8 pm // Theater Off Jackson, 409 7th Ave S // Tickets $17, available from Brown Paper Tickets
A curiosity for some long-time theater patrons is the Seattle Theatre Guild production of two early Italian operas, A Day on the Town, A Night in Hell, co-produced by Seattle's amazing Early Music Guild. Two short operas, one by Vecchio and the other by Monteverdi, all brought to fruition by Stephen Stubbs, Arne Zaslove, Donald Byrd, and Theodore Deacon, promises an interesting evening at the other end of the culture warz.
April 15 - 16, 8 pm; April 17th, 2 pm // The Moore Theatre // Tickets $38-88, available from STG.
Things we forgot to tell you about last week: The Seattle Childrens Theater opened with their adaptation of the beautiful story by Jean Giorno, The Man Who Planted Trees while the Seattle Rep opened their run of This, a professed "non-romantic comedy" by Melissa James Gibson. We apologize for the oversight.
Excelsior!
