Review: Thalia's Umbrella's beautifully rendered Fugard production

Pam Nolte, William Hall, Jr. and Terry Moore (John Ulman)

A Lesson from Aloes

Thalia’s Umbrella

(at Taproot Black Box)

Through October 26, 2014

Athol Fugard may not be a name you know well, or at all. However, he has earned his reputation well as a prolific playwright hailing from South African and often writing about people enmeshed in the consequences of their political and social systems of Apartheid. His beautifully written play, A Lesson from Aloes, is being produced by Thalia’s Umbrella – a company created by theatrical veterans Terry and Cornelia Moore to produce plays they feel an especial kinship with.

This three-hander, starring Terry Moore, Pam Nolte and William Hall, Jr., is a play you must pay careful attention to. The layers are geothermic (if you’d rather, we could go back to onions, though that’s boring), and call for careful mining. Moore and Nolte are a white couple, Piet or Pieter and Gladys, who had found fellowship and common cause with the black movement toward freedom and equality. But we meet the two of them after some difficult events.

Zinzanni's "Hacienda Holiday" warms up the winter rains

Don't be fooled! That's Christine Deaver in black and Kevin Kent in red in Hacienda Holiday (Alan Alabastro)

Hacienda Holiday

Teatro Zinzanni

Through January 31, 2015

It’s a good time in the tent tonight! The new show at Teatro Zinzanni, Hacienda Holiday, brings back oldies but goodies Christine Deaver and Kevin Kent as the five-times-married couple Beaumount and Caswell, who have travelled south of the border to renew their wedding vows. But there are secrets that bedevil their event and almost derail their plan. Horrors! Of course, all is well in the end…

This intimate mini-“cirque” is always a special event combining upscale food and carefully paired wines with gorgeous aerial, juggling, dance and song acts. If it’s your first time, you’re amazed and enthralled. If it’s your fifth or twenty-fifth, you know there will be something stunning and something heart-warming every time.

Headliners Deaver and Kent are consummate performers in this kind of venue, and their songs and Deaver’s solos are deftly delivered. They also have plenty of experience managing audience interaction and calling people up from their tables to have some light-hearted fun.

"The Vaudevillians" is a lighthearted, boozy romp

The Vaudevillians (Nate Watters)

The Vaudevillains
Seattle Repertory Theatre
through November 2, 2014

(as posted on Seattle Gay Scene)

If talent were the only criterion to be on the Seattle Repertory Theatre stage, then Richard Andriessen (aka Major Scales) and Jerick Hoffer (aka Jinkx Monsoon) should certainly be on their stage. If having fun were the only criterion for a play to be on the Seattle Repertory Theatre stage, then certainly, The Vaudevillians should be on their stage. Of course, anyone reading this article on Seattle Gay Scene is likely to want to immediately get tickets to see The Vaudevillians for the talent and the fun!

It’s a bit less likely, given a set of statistics, that a majority of current subscribers of the Seattle Repertory Theatre would think that the only criteria that counts is talent and fun. That is pretty much the open question.The Vaudevillians stars two brilliantly talented young men who have developed a storyline that is a hoot: a married vaudeville couple has been frozen in the Antarctic for dozens of years and having been recently thawed and revived have resumed their vaudeville performances.

Coming Up! Mary Ewald to play Hamlet at New City Theater

Mary Ewald as Hamlet (John Kazanjian)

Hamlet

New City Theater

October 22 – November 15, 2014

Did you know that many heralded women have played Hamlet in Shakespeare’s play? That the first recorded woman to play Hamlet was Fanny Furnival in Dublin, 1741? She was followed by many renowned (often middle aged, often Lesbian) actresses over the centuries. It’s no surprise that women have longed to play such meaty roles on stage; but perhaps more of a surprise is to learn just how many women, including Sarah Bernhardt at age 55, and (Dame) Judith Anderson at age 72, have played Hamlet on stage and screen.

Artists have found an internal conflict of the masculine and the feminine within Hamlet, and that conflict has served as an interpretive blueprint and approach to the character for Mary Ewald and John Kazanjian at New City Theater. Their upcoming production stars Mary Ewald as Hamlet.

I spoke to Mary about why she is willing to tackle the role as she prepares to take the stage. Mary says, “I've read a fascinating book on women playing Hamlet. Many of the women playing Hamlet were lesbians looking for a better challenge than most plays gave them. Most interesting is reading about different interpretations, and what a woman may bring out in the role that rings differently than a male actor playing it.

It wouldn't be horrorble if you missed this

Garrett Dill and Claudine Mboligikpelani Nako in The Rocky Horror Show (Jeff Carpenter)

The Rocky Horror Show

Seattle Musical Theatre

Through October 18, 2014

I’d like to be kind. I want Seattle Musical Theatre to have great big hits and lots of people attending. Aspects of The Rocky Horror Show are fun (costuming is good, lights and set are good), but overall, the musical, especially the steamless second act, is pretty much a mess.

The performers all seem invested, and it seems fun for them. So, that’s a good start. The video featuring Peggy Platt as the narrator and Lisa Koch as her butler is a great addition. There are a few performers who stand out, including Joel Domenico as Frank (though his flagging energy in the second act is part of the problem), Hisam Goueli, a surprisingly effective Rocky, and the game-for-anything talented Claudine Mboligikpelani Nako as Janet. But Nako can’t be the whole show.

Excellent acting in "Slip/Shot" overshadowed by technical shortcomings and disappointing script

Treavor Boykin and Faith Russell in Slip/Shot (PaulBestock)

Slip/Shot

Seattle Public Theater

Through October 12, 2014

(As printed in Seattle Gay News)

Seattle Public Theater often combines great technical design (especially for a mid-sized theater) and challenging and well-done productions. Some of the best in town. It’s easy to see why they might choose to do the play Slip/Shot by Jacqueline Goldfinger: A security guard shoots an unarmed African-American teen and claims it is an accident. It sounds like it would be an extremely topical and challenging play.

Though written around 2012, Goldfinger sets the action in 1960s small town southern America. Some dialogue is poetic, some sociologically relevant (women were expected to stay home and take care of their husbands), and the script probably reads well. Unfortunately, it disappoints.

However, the production at SPT is well-cast with excellent actors, with not a false acting note among them.