Let us not forget Tray’s “brownsville song” (Seattle Rep)

brownsville song (b-side for tray) (Chris Bennion)

brownsville song (b-side for tray)

Seattle Repertory Theatre

Through April 24, 2016

The 21^st century internet has made most of us much more aware of the tragedies occurring routinely in poor neighborhoods, riddled with gangs, and poorly policed. While it’s not “fun” to go see a sad story about a murder of a bright young man with a compelling future, Kimber Lee’s play, brownsville song (b-side for tray), layers in a beguiling central character, Tray (played adorably by Chinaza Uche) and a perhaps-cliché’d difficult family life to tell the story.

Lee’s play wants to shed light on the multitudes of young people killed each year in hard-to-police neighborhoods. Her subtitle, referencing the lesser side of records, the “b” side, reflects the desire to bring attention to people that don’t make the news and don’t get attended to. Lee started with a real person, Tray Franklin, who lived and died (in 2012) in Brownsville, a community in New York City. In an article in the program, Claire Koleske says that Franklin’s name wasn’t even included in news articles about his death.

I imagine those saying, “Another young man was gunned down in Brownsville today.” It’s a collective shrug. So, I admire Lee’s impulse to help us meet this aspiring boxer who dreamed of attending college.

Abba and Ryan are fun to watch, maybe in a comedy

Kiki Abba and Brandon Ryan in Belleville (Shane Regan)

Belleville

MAP Theatre

Through April 16, 2016

A loving couple, transplanted to Paris for the husband’s great job working with Doctors Without Borders, can have issues even after a long relationship spanning years. Maybe it’s because they’re in a foreign country, but slightly bigger cracks are developing between Abby (Kiki Abba) and Zack (Brandon Ryan) than they are used to.

The oh-so-very-American and “regular” couple at the heart of the beguiling Belleville, now staging by MAP Theatre, feels very accessible. The couple are cute and loving; their hassles seem on the edges of their relationship and not too threatening; maybe a good conversation will fix stuff.

We’re All Going to “The Other Place”

Amy Thone, Ray Gonzales and Jocelyn Maher in The Other Place (John Ulman)

The Other Place

Seattle Public Theater

Through April 17, 2016

Have you started forgetting things you used to dependably know? Names? Words? While scientists say that this phenomenon, which often starts in early 40s, is a normal part of aging, we also might start wondering if something more sinister is happening in our brains.

In The Other Place, now staging at Seattle Public Theater, Juliana (Amy Thone), a brain scientist, is pretty convinced that she could have brain cancer – a terrifying idea. What is clear is that the ground is shifting under her feet and her brain is not working the way it should.

Playwright Sharr White seems to like to embed mysteries in his plays. We recently were treated to another of his 90 minute one-acts, Annapurna, by Theatre22, which also had a mystery drive its action forward. In some respects, that play, with a singular mystery, was easier to understand than this play. This play seems to have several mysteries to unravel.

New Plays Bloom in April - Theater Openings

Marissa Ryder in South Pacific at Seattle Musical Theatre (Nataworry Photos)

There are an astonishing amount of world premieres this month (seven), all locally written! Seattle seems to be in love with new plays as the buds bloom. April openings are listed below in date order.

The Hat, Bitter Single Guy Productions and Gay City Arts, 4/1-9/16

World Premiere. The romantic comedy, by local playwright Greg Brisendine, is about a group of gay men as they navigate dating and love in the world of Grindr, open relationships, and the intersection of relationship and friendship.

https://www.strangertickets.com/events/31895016/the-hat

To Savor Tomorrow, Cafe Nordo, 4/7/16-6/5/16

Café Nordo takes flight with To Savor Tomorrow, an immersive comedy that parodies the 007 spy genre, set in the airplane lounge of a swank 1960’s Boeing Stratocruiser with craft-cocktails and retro-modernist cuisine woven into the experience. Food scientist Peter Proudhurst is transporting laboratory secrets. Professor Proudhurst's briefcase contains the revolutionary and potentially devastating secrets of modern convenience food and the controversial "Green Revolution." (Meal included)

http://www.cafenordo.com/now-playing

Real African story loses the beat: My Heart is the Drum

Claudine Mboligikpelani Nako in My Heart is the Drum (Mark Kitaoka)

My Heart is the Drum

Village Theatre

Issaquah: Through April 24, 2016

Everett: April 29-May 27, 2016

There are many aspects of the production My Heart is the Drum at Village Theatre to really like. The technical elements are gorgeous. The set (Carey Wongas) and costumes (Karen Ann Ledger) are vibrant and beautiful. The music feels authentically and pulsatingly Ghanaian. The cast is winning, with Gypsy Rose Lee award-winner Claudine Mboligikpelani Nako in the lead.

Sonia Dawkins’ choreography is quite wonderful. And there is a tiny dancer, Lydia Delane Olson, who is a revelation at such a young age.

It is a world premiere, which means that it has never had a full production before – only workshops from which point the writers, composer Phillip Palmer, lyricist Stacey Luftig and librettist Jennie Redling, would continue to make changes. The creatives are all clearly earnest and well-researched in their efforts. One can almost tell, via the staging, just how much they want to tell a good story.

Smokin’ performance of "Mrs. Warren's Profession" at Seattle Shakes

Emily Chisholm and Bobbi Kotula in Mrs. Warren's Profession (John Ulman)

Mrs. Warren’s Profession

Seattle Shakespeare Company

Through April 10, 2016

Take a bracing drag of cigar smoke and listen up: The GB Shaw production of Mrs. Warren’s Profession at Seattle Shakespeare Company is a cogent, smoking hot production!

The taut six-person cast, ably helmed by Victor Pappas, vigorously presents the story of a young woman, brought up with every advantage, finding out that her mother is actually a successful brothel owner. Raised by nannies and sent to boarding schools, Vivie Warren (briskly and independently played by Emily Chisholm) doesn’t really know her mother well, and is tired of the secrecy of her mother’s background.

Now that Vivie is grown and finished with university, she intends to make a new life for herself in actuarial work. Vivie eschews romance and art and leisure and loves to work. She thinks that will conflict with her mother’s ideals for her, and in some ways she is correct. But Kitty Warren (empathetically played by force-of-nature Bobbi Kotula) is more complex than that, finally revealing most of her background to her daughter.