Contemplative "Molly Sweeney" scientifically explains sight

Jenni Taggart and Dara Lillis in Molly Sweeney (Michael Brunk)

Molly Sweeney

KTO Productions

(at TPS 4, Seattle Center Armory)

Through October 24, 2015

Playwright Brian Friel was considered a prolific writer of plays. His range was wide, as were his interests, but often he set his story in the town of "Ballybeg" (from the Irish Baile Beag, meaning "Small Town"). KTO Productions was in rehearsal for Molly Sweeney, one of Friel’s more contemplative plays, when he died on October 2^nd. Seattle audiences were treated to a lovely production of his Dancing at Lughnasa at the Seattle Rep in 2010.

Molly Sweeney, as a play, is a bit challenging, and one must bring patience to let it unfold. But if you allow the play to work its magic, you will get a lot to think about on the way home.

The named subject is a woman (Jenni Taggart) who has been blind since her first year of life and is content, well-adjusted and happy in her life. Technology and medicine have caught up with her condition after 40 years and her new husband (Dara Lillis) loves the idea that surgery might allow her to see again. The doctor, Mr. Rice (Doug Knoop), admits in an early monologue that he is partly motivated by acclaim and reputation to see if he can restore long unused sight.

"One Slight Hitch" is old-style door-slamming fun

Cast of One Slight Hitch (Christine Mosere)

One Slight Hitch

Phoenix Theatre

Through November 1, 2015

Comedian Lewis Black wrote One Slight Hitch and it was produced at ACT Theatre in 2012. Deliberately set in 1981 – “morning in (Reagan’s) America,” it is a throwback to old-style slamming door farce. ACT’s production was sluggish and not very funny. It had the stalwart R. Hamilton Wright as the dad and Marianne Owen as the mom and they did their utmost to bring the comedy.

Phoenix Theatre does comedies. So it fits their modality and they are pretty great at old-style slamming door farce! Their mounting of the play is faster, funnier and sillier than the lugubrious ACT production. I even laughed at more of the jokes!

Laugh with or at "Bad Jews"…It can take it!

Ben Phillips and Anna Kasaybyan in Bad Jews (Paul Bestock)

Bad Jews

Seattle Public Theater

Through October 25, 2015

Bad Jews, by Joshua Harmon, on stage now at Seattle Public Theater, is a very personal and mixed bag experience for me. Jews are a teeny, tiny minority in Seattle and are often completely overlooked, but Jews have a deep infiltration of theater in this country (and of course were seminal in the creation of the Hollywood machine), so there is perhaps an outsized connection to Judaism in theater.

Shana Bestock, director and artistic director of SPT, wrote an also personal and mixed-emotion note about this play and her own Jewish identity, so the play seems to hit many different notes for her, too. I often find myself worried about the execution of a play in Seattle, where so many don’t hear the specific cadences of Jewish vocal delivery, and sometimes very funny Jewish plays don’t land any jokes because their rhythms are totally misplaced.

This is a 90-minute, real-time play about three cousins, just after their beloved grandfather’s funeral, two of whom want a “chai” – a gold-form Hebrew word for “life” – that has special meaning for both. They converge at a one-room apartment in New York with one cousin’s girlfriend, and have the fight of their lives.

Powerful production of "A View from the Bridge" - great cast!

Kirsten Potter and Amy Danneker in A View from the Bridge (Alabastro Photography)

A View from the Bridge

Seattle Repertory Theatre

Through October 18, 2015

Director Braden Abraham’s notes about his mounting of Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge reference the timeliness of the play because of Syrian refugees and the issue of immigration. In that, I disagree with him. The play does revolve around a couple of Sicilian illegal immigrants coming into Eddie Carbone’s family. But immigration issues really only point to the power and privilege that Eddie wields over them.

Arthur Miller’s play is not important because of current events. The play is important because of its reflection of privilege and obsession and the power of self-destruction, and rooted in history. It is far more poetic than most plays, with a narrator lawyer (Leonard Kelly-Young) who tells us ahead of the coming tragedy that he can see it coming and cannot stop it. In fact, he does everything he can to advise Eddie (Mark Zeisler) to right his own ship before it sinks.

October Theater openings!

Bad Jews at Seattle Public Theater (Paul Bestock)

October  theater openings bring us biting religious comedy, a Thai superstar in a world premiere, a couple of cutting edge immersive theatrical experiences, and more.

Bad Jews, Seattle Public Theater, 10/2-25/15

Bad Jews is a biting comedy about family, faith, and contemporary Jewish identity in America. The night after their grandfather’s funeral, cousins engage in an explosive verbal (and sometimes physical) battle. Daphna is a “real Jew” who is volatile, self-assured, and unbending. Liam is a secular and entitled young man, who has his shiksa (non-Jewish) girlfriend, Melody, in tow. When Liam stakes his claim to their grandfather’s chai necklace, a vicious and hilarious brawl ensues.

www.seattlepublictheater.org

Winter Bird, Eclectic Theater, 10/1-25/15 (world premiere) Equity Member Project

A Gothic fantasy about a librarian and a sub-arctic vampire. A world premiere by Stephen Delos Treacy (local playwright).

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2055241

Listening Glass, Seattle Immersive Theatre, 10/1-30/15 (at a warehouse at 2724 6th Ave S)

Jamie Bennett was the dishwasher on duty the night Jon Wurtz was killed. He was right there when it happened. So why is he lying about what he saw? Is he an unreliable witness, or a cold-blooded killer? Immerse yourself in a working homicide department. The performance starts the moment you set foot in the space, and is limited to a maximum of seventeen participants per night.

http://www.strangertickets.com/events/27889294/listening-glass

MAP's world premiere by Vincent Delaney presents an interesting true story

Peggy Gannon and Ben McFadden in The Art of Bad Men (Shane Regan)

The Art of Bad Men

MAP Theatre

(at INScape)

Through October 17, 2015

We’re all pretty used to POW films focusing on how hard it is/was to be a prisoner as a U.S. soldier. We don’t usually get a focus on enemy soldiers, but the world premiere play at MAP Theatre, The Art of Bad Men, by local playwright Vincent Delaney, brings us a trio of German POWs held in the pasturelands of Minnesota!

The “art” mentioned in the title refers to the fact, a true story, that German POWs in that Minnesota prison camp put on a Moliere play while incarcerated there! I guess it was because they could, and to ward off the tedium and have something to do. The bad men are, by definition, the German soldiers. They are a trio of different kinds of men: a stalwart Nazi (Ben McFadden) trying to keep working on escaping and undermining their captivity, a musician who entertained the German soldiers and never saw real action (Ben Burris), and a boy recruited to the Nazi Youth – too young to know what the whole war was about (Sean Schroeder).