theater review

This review comes out on Thursday in print.

Photo of Hamlet (Patrick O'Driscoll) and Claudius (Kato Bass) by Gretchen Drew

A Gutsy Hamlet
Or Not to Be turns the horror inside out
by Suzi Steffen

God, that Will Shakespeare was hilarious, wasn’t he? Especially around death. The final scene of Hamlet? Side-splitting!

Bad puns aside ... actually, bad puns not aside: John Schmor’s adaptation Or Not to Be, a collaboration between the UO theater department and the Lord Leebrick Theatre, distills both Hamlet’s humor and the play’s strong stench of the graveyard into a first-generation hybrid that needs tweaking but provides some spectacular moments.

Read more here.

Two, two, two in one!

These will both appear in print and online for the April 10 edition of the EW. Um, and they're both by me.

See the pix here:

Harry Thunder (Kevin Coubal) talks to new ladies' maid Jane Gammon (Sarah Ragle). Photo by Cliff Coles.
Out With a Bang
Wild is the right word for Oats

and

Dagot (Scott Shirk) and Samuel (Dylan Skye Kennedy) with an anonymous egghead in the background. Photo by Michael Brinkerhoff.
Waiting for the End
Local playwright's homage to Beckett at LCC

Read the words here.

This review will run in the April 3 print edition and also online here after April 3.

Pic of Herr Zangler (Michael Walker) and Melchior (Michael Watkins) by John Bauguess.

Wild Yawps, Whinnies and Props
On the Razzle dazzles the eyes and ears
By Suzi Steffen

Sheer, unadulterated fun: That’s the point, and the experience, of Tom Stoppard’s fantastic farce On the Razzle, now playing at the Very Little Theatre.

And a joyful experience the show definitely is — except for the part where audience laughter blows eardrums and overrides some of Stoppard’s trademark language. OK, the show’s not perfect (I’ll elaborate in a minute), but for a volunteer-run organization, the VLT has scored a coup in this arch but warm laugh-a-minute production. More than the successful staging of a nine-door, several-staircase, ridiculously pun-filled romp, this show gives the VLT’s community theater status a chance to shine.

Read more!

This review will run in the paper on 3-20, when it will be available here as well as in print.

Photo of Hannah (Rebecca Nachison), Brandt (Tom Wilson) and Thomas (Derek Johnson) courtesy Lord Leebrick Theatre.

Stumbling Away from Bethlehem
Good people acting in bad faith in Busy World
by Suzi Steffen

Thanks for the whole Fall of Man thing, God. Really appreciate it.

Or so Keith Bunin might say. Bunin’s the playwright whose The Busy World Is Hushed opened at the Lord Leebrick Theatre Friday, March 14. Though the lengthy — and surprisingly witty — theological arguments of the play’s three characters suggest that Bunin’s subject concerns God, Jesus and the history of Christianity, his true topic is human frailty. We’ve got a lot to answer for, not even counting rapes, murders, wars and genocide: It’s hard enough just to love someone. Bunin’s characters, though subdued, struggle with manipulation, loss and the relentlessness of death.

Not to make the play sound like a total bummer.
Read more.

This will appear in the 3/13 edition of the paper.

Flight of Fancy
Actors Cabaret defies gravity, convention
By Anna Grace

Reach for your dreams, no matter how silly, at Actors Cabaret of Eugene this month.

ACE’s new show, The Flight of the Lawnchair Man, is based on the real events of 1982 when, in a quest for flight, Larry Walters attached 42 weather balloons to his lawn chair, soaring to a height of 16,000 feet. One might ask why produce, or even write, a musical about such a bizarre yet not terribly complex theme. ACE might answer, “Why not?”

Zany is what you’ll get for the price of your ticket. Read more.