Pages

Sunday, November 24, 2024

Go Spy on ‘Edgar & Annabel’ Before They Escape

 
Zenaida Smith and Dylan Smith in Edgar & Annabel (Ken Holmes)
Edgar and Annabel
Pony World Theatre
At 12th Avenue Arts
Through November 30, 2024
 
How dark can a play about spies, politics, and karaoke get? Pretty dang dark at times in this engrossing spy play. You know that it’s a spy play because, besides Pony World Theatre saying so, if you come a half hour early you can get some spy training!
 
Pony World has long been a company whose work I know I want to see, in advance. They have a solid theatrical aesthetic and choose shows well. Here, they’ve chosen a play written in 2011 that feels like it could be written (God forbid) about 2025!!
 
We immediately know that Edgar and Annabel are spies. No spoiler, here. The two people who seem to live in the house with the kitchen they are standing in (a one-set moment that works very simply, as Robin Macartney often designs) also don’t seem to know each other. And they suddenly start reading from a script with an eye on a microphone above them.

Monday, November 04, 2024

November Variety on Seattle Area Stages

Chad Goller-Sojourner
Sitting in Circles with Rich White Girls: Memoir of a Bulimic Black Boy 
(courtesy Chad Goller-Sojourner)
As winter begins to wave and run after us, November has plenty to offer area theater-goers! The end of the month is more holiday oriented. Still there’s plenty of intriguing variety to choose from. Get outcher calendars!
Holmes and Watson (Michael Brunk)
Holmes and Watson, SecondStory Repertory, 11/1-17/24
A thrilling intellectual puzzle wrapped in a cloak of mystery, this play picks after the presumed death of Sherlock Holmes at Reichenbach Falls. Dr. Watson finds himself inundated with impostors claiming to be the world's greatest detective. As Watson delves deeper into this perplexing situation, he is drawn into a labyrinth of deceit, where the lines between reality and illusion blur. Is Holmes truly dead? Or has he masterminded an elaborate hoax? Prepare to be challenged, entertained, and utterly captivated by this ingenious reimagining of the classic Sherlock Holmes saga.
www.secondstoryrep.org
 
Merchant of Venice: The Musical, Amaranth Turtle Stages, 11/1-10/24 (at Aspire Repertory Theatre, 11030 8th Ave NE, Seattle) (staged reading)
A bold reimagining of Shakespeare's controversial play, as a musical. Merchant of Venice: The Musical takes place in 16th-century Venice. Bassanio wishes to woo heiress Portia. Antonio, his friend, wants to help Bassanio impress Portia with a display of wealth. Antonio makes a deal with Shylock, a Jewish moneylender, despite his distrust of the Jewish population. When Antonio is unable to pay back his loan, Shylock decides that it's time to mistreat Antonio in the same way both he and his people have been mistreated for years. Local writers, Daniel Arthur, music, and Anna Tatelman, lyrics and book, collaborate.
https://venice.brownpapertickets.com/
 
The Marriage of Figaro, Theatre33, 11/2-23/24
One of the funniest comedies of all time! A single crazy day in the castle of Count Almaviva, whose household manages to weave a dizzying intrigue with weddings, courts, adoptions, jealousy and reconciliation. Figaro vows to trick the lustful count around, win Suzanne and not lose her dowry. In Russian with English subtitles.
www.theatre33wa.org
 
Triple Fire Sign: Justin Huertas in Concert, Intiman Cabaret, 11/4-5/24 (at Erickson Theatre)
Justin Huertas returns to Seattle with a concert event created exclusively for the Intiman Cabaret. An out and proud Aries Sun/Leo Moon/Leo Rising and therefore doomed to a career creating egocentric performance art, Justin shares a fiery playlist of acoustic bops and bangers to boil the blood—including tunes from his next World Premiere musical!