Meticulous production highlights the huge size of tiny, quiet moments (The Bunner Sisters)

Marty Mukhalian and Annette Toutonghi in The Bunner Sisters (Paul Lippert)

The Bunner Sisters

Athena Theatre Project  

(in a co-production with Theatre Off Jackson)

Through October 5, 2014

Two sisters in turn of the 20^th Century clothing move effortlessly around a tiny storefront/apartment sewing, crimping, serving customers, stopping for tea, in a meager, but comfortable life. They remind of the careful attention to detail, and small moments, that is exemplified in tv’s Downton Abbey. They, too, have little to say to each other, a way of behavior that is so foreign to our “say anything you feel to anyone” age.

These sisters are actors Marty Mukhalian and Annette Toutonghi, in the new adaptation of Edith Wharton’s The Bunner Sisters, adapted by and directed by Julie Beckman for her new occasionally-producing theater company, Athena Theatre Project. The meticulous storefront/apartment was designed by Phillip Lienau and the actors look like they could have lived there for years.

Don't miss The Play of the Year (so far): "The Invisible Hand" at ACT Theatre

Erwin Galan (back), Elijah Alexander, Connor Toms (seated) in The Invisible Hand (Chris Bennion)

The Invisible Hand
ACT Theatre
Through September 28, 2014

(printed in Seattle Gay News)

If terrorists ever decide to imitate "Art" instead of having "Art" imitate "Life" - and they see the play The Invisible Hand by Ayad Akhtar - well... the world is in big trouble! This intense, smart, gripping drama at ACT Theatre has a plot that includes describing how financial markets work, and it drives to a conclusion that makes the blood drain out of your face and dread fill your soul. 

The play begins some period of time into Nick Bright's (Connor Toms) captivity in a Pakistani cement block house. While we don't quite know how long he has been there, it has been long enough for him to teach a little English to the young guard, Dar (Erwin Galan) and help the guard make some money for his village selling potatoes. 

Suddenly, Bashir (Elijah Alexander) a lieutenant of the Imam (William Ontiveros) reminds Nick and Dar, both, that this is captivity, and fear and tension grip the stage. While actual violence is sparse, the threat of it remains a potent force throughout the remainder of the play. While journalist Daniel Pearl's beheading is referred to, the audience is quick to think of the recent beheadings in the news. 

The dulcet tones of a barbershop quartet teach a lesson in tolerance in Taproot's "The Fabulous Lipitones"

Brad Walker, John Patrick Lowrie, Greg Stone and Jeff Berryman in The Fabulous Lipitones (Erik Stuhaug)

The Fabulous Lipitones

Taproot Theatre

Through October 18, 2014

(printed in Seattle Gay News)

Oh, no! The tenor member of a barbershop quartet has died, just before the national finals! What do the other three do? Between arguing about disbanding (and other petty squabbles), they hear a great new singing voice on the phone and set about having an audition, right away. But the guy who shows up is “not like them.” He’s wearing a turban. Hilarity ensues.

This sweet production of The Fabulous Lipitones at Taproot Theatre is a new work by John Markus and Mark St. Germain (former writers on The Cosby Show), and is disarmingly light. It’s kind of a small town story, set in a farm town outside Columbus, Ohio, where people do small town kinds of things, like develop a passion for barbershop quartet music.

The revelation that the tenor they need in order to go to nationals is a Sikh almost sends Phil the gym owner (Jeff Berryman) into paroxysms of fear and racism. Wally the pharmacist (John Patrick Lowrie) and Howard (Greg Stone) are far more interested in going to nationals to worry too much about terrorism from Baba Mati Das – otherwise known as “Bob” (Brad Walker). Eventually, they browbeat, wear down and bargain with Phil to get him to move forward with Bob as their fourth singer.

There are lots of jokes, a few groaners, and some familiar stock kinds of characters (though with unique characteristics that help) and the production, helmed by Scott Nolte, feels like a dessert, all silly and amusing. Embedded in there, though, is a big topic of accepting those who are different than we are, learning about cultures that are not our own, and finding ways of overcoming obstacles to inclusion.

The four actors all perform the barbershop quartet arrangements with dispatch and professionalism. They sound great. They are all terrific singers.

The set by Mark Lund allows for transformation from a funeral parlor to the crowded basement of Howard’s small house. Costuming by Nanette Acosta is appropriately serviceable until fun and gaudy performance gear is added. Some Bollywood-style dance steps are provided by Gurvinder Pal Singh with additional choreography by Beth Orme.

This is exactly the type of production that would appeal to Taproot’s subscribers. There is a message, but it is clearly stated and swaddled in great humor. It’s kind of like eating ice cream and then finding out that they used soy milk or almond milk and healthy ingredients and you thought it tasted great anyway.

Also, Walker’s performance is tender and honorable to the Sikh traditions and values. He is funny (he has a terrific grin), but never makes fun of, or denigrates, his character’s upright sense of righteousness.

For more information, go to www.taproottheatre.org or call 206-781-9707. 

Village Theatre’s "In the Heights" hits the heights for dancing and excitement

(from top left in circle)
Naomi Morgan, Iris Elton, Jennifer Paz and Tanesha Rass in In the Heights (Mark Kitaoka)

In the Heights

Village Theatre

Issaquah: through October 26, 2014

Everett: October 31 – November 23, 2014

(printed in Seattle Gay News)

Did you know that In the Heights is a dance musical?! It is! It’s also a rap musical, and a hip hop musical, and a heartwarming story of the residents of Washington Heights, New York City, bonding through song, and an electrical blackout.

Did you know that the cast of Village Theatre’s production of In the Heights is insanely good? It is! Village has brought back some ex-Seattle residents along with a few guest visitors that ratchet up the talent on stage to unbelievable…heights. (Yup, I said it.)

This musical is so much fun. The music reflects the Latin influences of Washington Heights and even though people are struggling and low-income, they still have self-esteem and drive and dreams of making it. We meet corner-store proprietor Usnavi, who wants to leave the Heights and open a store in the Dominican Republic, home of his deceased parents. In the meantime, he takes care of his father’s store and his cousin, Sonny, and his adopted grandmother nearby.

The other story is about Nina, the smart girl who managed to get a scholarship to Stanford University, but has had to drop out after working two jobs and losing the scholarship due to dropping grades. Her family owns a car transportation service and a young worker, Benny, consoles her about having to disappoint her parents.

15 plus companies help create city-wide Beckett Fest - Best known play "Waiting for Godot"

Darragh Kennan and Todd Jefferson Moore in Waiting for Godot (John Ulman)

Waiting for Godot
Seattle Shakespeare Company
(At ACT Theatre's Central Heating Lab)
Through September 21

From the brains of George Mount, artistic director of Seattle Shakespeare Company, and then A.J. Epstein proprietor of West of Lenin and a few other theater practitioners, sometime back in 2013 or 2014, there came a decision to have a citywide festival celebrating Irish playwright Samuel Beckett. Having thus decreed it, they bustled about making it so with fundraising and recruiting other companies to choose pieces of Beckett's writings and create productions. There are over 15 companies participating in the festival!

Beckett (1906-1989) was a practitioner of the "theater of the absurd" and prized minimalism. He grew to adulthood in Dublin and then taught in France and spent most of his life between the two countries. He often wrote in French and then made his own translations.

The festival has a website: www.seattlebeckettfest.org that includes a list of productions and companies and links to help you find them and buy tickets. There is also a Facebook page: www.facebook.com/seattlebeckettfest.

Life=Play and other events
A few events have already taken place. West of Lenin produced an evening of four short pieces, entitled Life=Play. Act Without Words, Part 1 starred Ray Tagavilla in a kind of humorous mime play where a man tumbles onto stage and the stage itself directs him to try to grab a vial of water hung from the ceiling, and mysteriously provides boxes for him to climb on to reach the vial. Ultimately, though, the vial is pulled too high to reach.

Dorfman’s “Death and the Maiden” demonstrates the personal devastation of many dictatorships

Fernando Luna (front), Frank Lawler and Tonya Andrews in Death and the Maiden (Michael Brunk)

There is another September 11^th, one we have little affinity for, but one that cements that particular date in history to particularly important historic activities, 1973: the Chilean coup of democratically-elected President Salvadore Allende by General Pinochet. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this was a U.S.-backed coup. Pinochet’s dictatorship included 17 years of tortures and human rights abuses.

Argentina has had a long series of dictators and coup attempts, often followed by disappearances and deaths of dissidents, students, journalists, and many other “normal” citizens, numbered in the tens of thousands. Ariel Dorfman, playwright and native-Argentinian, has written a play about the results of torture set in a South American country that is unnamed.

Death and the Maiden  is being produced by Latino Theatre Projects through September 28^th. Tickets here (at the Ballard Underground).

Dorfman has said, “Twenty years ago, when Death and the Maiden, the play that tells this story, opened in London at the Royal Court Upstairs, the country where that woman, Paulina, awaited a constantly delayed justice, was my own Chile or the Argentina where I was born. Or South Africa. Or Hungary. Or China…. Today, as the same play is revived in London's West End, its main drama is echoed in Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, Iran, Nigeria, Sudan, Ivory Coast, Iraq, Thailand, Zimbabwe and now Libya.”

The message of this searing drama is that it happened, and happens, everywhere, and for those who go through the abductions and tortures, rapes and beatings, if they do not die, they have little to no recourse for justice or reconciliation. Dorfman’s play uses the small to write large.

Death and the Maiden  focuses on a mid-level political appointee to a new government (Gerardo Escobar – Frank Lawler) and his wife. Paulina (Tonya Andrews) has become a recluse, protected by Gerardo from too much agitation. Gerardo has been offered a prestigious appointment to a government taking over from a recent dictatorship. Trust in the government is close to non-existent, but Gerardo would be investigating crimes of the dictatorship with an eye toward justice and reconciliation.