Edgy "Tilt Angel" is something different

Carter Rodriquez and Llysa Holland in Tilt Angel (Chris Bennion)

Hey, You! The one who's always complaining that Seattle theater is boring! Well, have I got a show for you: Tilt Angel by theater simple (at West of Lenin). Edgy, moody, weirdly funny, definitely not like most of the theater you see around here.

It's not easy to describe the story, but that's why you want to see it, right? It starts with a mimed plane crash that kills the mother, Lois (Llysa Holland), and we then meet the agoraphobic son left behind, Ollie (Spike Huntington-Klein) and his dad, Red (Carter Rodriquez). They don't have the best relationship.


In fact, they rarely speak. And haven't for years. So, it's clear that Ollie really needs to be able to leave the house, even if it's just to take care of himself. Luckily, once Lois is buried in the backyard with Red's right hand (you have to go see this to find out about the hand, now), she transforms into a garden sprite and encourages Ollie to break down the house.

Red has this really cool apparatus for a hand that he's concocted to enable him to continue his work as a body-shop man. And he's also gotten help from an Angel (Selena Whitaker-Paquiet) to build a set of wings so he can actually fly. And the Angel sings sad songs, but then there's a kinda sorta happy ending, so you don't leave the theater feeling down.

There's also live guitar played by Michael James Adams. 

So, stop complaining that there isn't any interesting theater and go see this show!