Limited Perspective

I’m afraid of the water.  Even when I get into a normal swimming pool, I take forever to lower myself in, one inch at a time, until I am finally submerged.  Parlor House Panic of 1893 , by WhatNot Theatrics at Theatre Off Jackson was like that for me.  I slowly settled into it and when I got all in, the water was fine; more than fine, actually. I am still buzzing about the show. The conceit is, it’s 1893 in Seattle and you have entered into a Parlor House, where “seamstresses” work.   They are quick to point out the lack of sewing machines.   As I walked in, there was musical entertainment and the women walked around the room.   I would make quick eye contact and then look away, slightly embarrassed to be interacting with an actor, or with an actor playing a prostitute, or with a prostitute.   Who knew!   The show was working its magic. Soon I noticed several men around a table conversing loudly.   It seemed important.   There was an empty chair at the table, so I sat do

I think I heard it right.  Frost/Nixon , now on stage at Second Story Rep, says Richard Nixon engineered his own downfall in his interviews with David Frost.  That’s the way it came across to me, anyway.  And that would make Nixon a tragic figure, which I am sure he would love. Patrick Kevin plays Nixon as uncomfortable and slightly clownish, which is certainly the received idea of Nixon.   He seems to buy in to his lone assistant Jack Brennan’s (Jalyn Green) idea of the interviews with Frost as a way to win. Doug Fahl plays David Frost as plodding and determined, like fate bearing down on Tricky Dick.   His assistants seem more interested in his rehabilitation than he is himself and they think he’s screwing it up. Just before the fourth and final interview session with Nixon, Frost figures out that Nixon wants to take himself down.   Sure enough, Nixon hangs himself in that interview with the by now famous confession, “When the president does it, that means that it i