November Theatre in Seattle – Holidays Here We Come

Dani Davis in I Am My Own Wife (photo by Quinlan Corbett)

November has an abundance of plays to choose from. And after Thanksgiving, it’s clearly the start of the holiday season! Get out yer calendars!
 
I Am My Own Wife
11/4-22/26 (at Erickson Theatre)
Intiman Theatre, www.intiman.org
This is the extraordinary true story of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, a German trans woman who survived both the Nazi and Communist regimes, and the playwright who begins to doubt her story. Newcomer Dani Davis takes on more than 30 roles in a tour-de-force solo performance.
 
The Time of Your Life
11/5-14/26 (at Parnassus by Basecamp, 1518 3rd Ave, Sea.)
The Feast, www.the-feast.org
A rich man trying to do good, a sex worker trying to evade a vice cop, a society couple slumming it with the riff-raff, a bored housewife looking for something to do, an old cowboy spinning tales that probably didn't happen, a teenager trying desperately to get laid, and the worst stand-up comic in history. In an immersive production, the audience becomes barflies listening to these characters.
 
New Voices, New Narratives
2026 New Works Festival
11/5-22/26 (MLK FAME Center)
The Shattered Glass Project, www.shatteredglassproject.org
Anatomy of Flight by Lisa Price
stop your crying, baby by Max Koh
The Souls of Larks and Sparrow by Véro Lecocq
Loom by Carolynne Wilcox
 
Phèdre
11/5-15/26
UW School of Drama (Meany Hall), drama.washington.edu
Phèdre is a queen and a mother who has been cursed by the Gods. She receives news that the king, Theseus, is dead. Encouraged by her lady-in-waiting, Oenone, and fueled by her own feelings Phèdre confesses to the King’s son and heir, Hippolytus that she is in love with him.  Soon after, King Theseus returns, alive and well, setting off a series of unforeseen consequences.
 
Bakersfield Mist
11/6-22/26
SecondStory Rep, www.secondstoryrep.org
Inspired by true events, this quick-witted and thoroughly entertaining comedy-drama asks: Who gets to decide what art is truly worth? Maude Gutman, a foul-mouthed, unemployed bartender living in a cluttered California trailer park, buys a hideous painting at a thrift store for three dollars, only to become convinced it's an undiscovered Jackson Pollock masterpiece worth millions. When a deeply elitist, world-class art expert flies in from New York to authenticate it, a high-stakes, hilarious battle of wits explodes—pitting high-brow academia against low-brow grit.

Rom-Com with a fresh, contemporary flare - 'Table 17' at UAC

Cast of Table 17 (photo by Giao Nguyen)

Table 17

Union Arts Center
Through November 15, 2026

Romantic comedies (rom-coms) are actually quite difficult to write. They have a simple concept with a plot as familiar as time itself. Since we are all, if we’re over 12, familiar with relationships that fail, as really most of them do, it takes real writing skill to make the story interesting to watch.
 
Table 17 is a 90-minute rom-com by Douglas Lyons. Lyons is a fresh voice and rising playwright/musical theater writer. His writing voice is colloquial and current and slangy and fun. The reason why this rom-com works is because of that writing style in dialogue. He’s got what seems like a natural voice in comedy.
 
The characters in Table 17, Jada (Bria Samoné Henderson), Dallas (Brandon JonesMooney) and River/Eric (Lamar Legend), don’t take themselves too seriously and poke fun at themselves and their own weaknesses, while striving to be their best selves. Their dialogue clearly differentiates their personalities. They enjoy teasing each other.

Quick Take Review: Linda Vista at SecondStory Repertory

Lantz Wagner and Sara Albertson in Linda Vista (courtesy SecondStory Rep)

Linda Vista
SecondStory Repertory
Through October 11, 2026
 
Playwright Tracy Letts isn’t known particularly as a comedic writer. But SecondStory Rep found his Linda Vista, and produced a great show with a solid cast. Led by Lantz Wagner, as Wheeler, a 50-year-old divorcee working at a camera shop and bemoaning a lost career as a photographer, the ensemble cast of Tadd Morgan, Lisa Branham, Tamara Burgess, Jay Jenkins, Sara Albertson, and Lauren Erwin join together in this rueful comedy.

Quick Take Review: The Chinese Lady at ArtsWest (with Yun Theatre)

Sebastian Wang and Zoe Ding in The Chinese Lady (photo by John McLellan)

The Chinese Lady
ArtsWestwith Yun Theatre
Through October 11, 2026
 
Afong Moy came to the States from China when she was 14 years old in 1834. Believed to be the first Chinese female to come to our shores, she was sent by her parents for what was to be a roughly three-year period to be “exhibited” so that sightseers could experience the “real” Chinese lifestyle. She was displayed in a confined box-space. However, she and her translator Atung never left.
 
Lloyd Suh created a heart-breaking two-hander, here performed by Zoe Ding as Afong Moy, and Sebastian Wang as Atung. Both characters address the audience primarily, and only occasionally each other. These actors did a masterful job managing both talking directly to the audience and breaking out of “performance mode,” to develop their private relationship.

Quick Take Review: Conscience at Taproot Theatre

Cast of Conscience (photo by Robert Wade)

Conscience

Taproot Theatre
Through October 17, 2026
 
Margaret Chase Smith was an American politician from Maine and the first woman to serve in both houses of the US Congress. Beside her ceiling-breaking political career, she is best known for standing up to the wild, rogue carnage of Sen. Joseph McCarthy, as he destroyed lives by simply announcing that well-known individuals were “communists.”
 
This extremely pertinent production of Joe Dipietro’s Conscience starred a superb cast of four: Alyssa Keene as the indomitable Chase Smith, Jonathan Swindle as McCarthy, Christopher Clark as Chase Smith’s staffer, William Lewis Jr., and Kelly Karcher as Jean Kerr, McCarthy’s staffer and eventually wife.

Quick Take Review: Eureka Day @ Seattle Rep

Cast of Eureka Day (photo by Sayed Alamy)

Eureka Day

Seattle Rep
Through November 15, 2026
 
The parents at Eureka Day school in Berkeley, CA strive to do everything by consensus. The leaders of the school “council” have been there forever, but also want to be accessible to new parents. So, they welcome Carina (Hemuna Ceesay) to their group when her child enrolls. A lot of what the audience experiences is through Carina’s eyes as casual micro-aggressions cause her to wince and become alienated.
 
Mostly, the usual school issues pop up until suddenly mumps starts breaking out in the area. The parents find themselves definitely not in consensus when one of their children gets sick and it starts to spread. Vaccination policy doesn’t seem to come with kumbaya moments.
 
Playwright Jonathan Spector wrote the play prior to 2018, presciently anticipating that something could happen that might have real life consequences. He brilliantly straddles humor and real-world consequences leading us through a range of points-of-view that we now recognize instantly.
 
The six cast members, including imperious founder, Suzanne (Sara Hennessy), harried school administrator Don (Jonathan Slavin), gregarious, bombastic stay-at-home dad Eli (Quinn Mattfeld), and single mom Mieko (Ashley Song), and a cameo by Winter (Marena Kleinpeter) mesh well and their comic timing is pretty spot on. Each member has a distinct back-story that gives them uniqueness. It’s fun to watch.