Limited Perspective

Keefee's House of Cards  Tonight was my second time going to Keefee's House of Cards at the Rendezvous. The theme, based on who showed up and how the conversation developed, turned out to be sharing secrets. It was a sort of pajama party vibe in the Grotto. KHOC is a one-person show that turns into a five or six person show, more or less, depending on how many people come up to play blackjack. Audience is invited up to play and share stories with Keefee, who used to deal in Vegas and has come to Se attle. I went up to play, along with four others. It seemed like the five of us, in becoming characters in the show, got permission or license to be more ourselves. We shared freely. By the time Keefee had dealt two or three hands, I felt like I was 17 and hanging out in my best friend's den. If you go, you don't have to play, you can just watch and I am sure you will get the same intimate feeling. This is brilliant theater and I so recommend it. Photo courtes...

Outdoor Theater Fest diary, Saturday, July 14, 2018 Lear, Pinocchio, and The Three Musketeers Usually, you go into the dark to see a play. My favorite place to see a show is the Ballard Underground. Even at midday on the brightest day of the year, it’s as dark as midnight in the basement of the Kress Building. Volunteer Park amphitheater today was a different matter. No clouds. All sun. That might seem like an odd venue to do King Lear , but nevertheless, Wooden O persisted. I was there today to see the show after Lear. I arrived near the end, about the time Gloucester jumps off the “cliff.” So it would not be fair to say much about the show but some of the lines (like the Earl) landed well. When Lear said, while holding dead Cordelia, "Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life, / And thou no breath at all?" that line hit hard. The grief was there. Even though I did not have the context of the first 90 minutes of the play, and I was mostly a spectator (not audi...

Uncle Vanya  I saw Uncle Vanya last night, produced by The Original Theatre Black Dog . It’s people sitting around in rooms, thinking their lives are over, and inflicting themselves on each other. No one’s plans work out. What’s left are broken dreams and blank plodding into a dull future ending in the grave. But it’s not all comedy! Seriously, though, if you see this show, you will understand the power of the play. Last chance is tonight. Photo courtesy of Original Theatre Black Dog. Originally published on my Facebook page on June 9, 2018

Pat Rick on Mac Beth In which I interview myself about recent local developments in Shakespeare Pat: So you saw Mac Beth at Seattle Rep recently, what did you think? Rick : Shakespeare had a habit of putting a play-within-the-play. Macbeth is not one of those. So it’s intriguing to me that the creative team at the Rep decided to use that device. In this production, the entire play – well, there are a lot of cuts – that you and I know as Macbeth is performed within Mac Beth . The idea is that seven private school girls in the present day have decided for some reason to perform the play for themselves and by themselves after school in a dreary vacant lot nearby. Pat: And how do you think that worked? Rick: It’s genius. It allows you to experience the play “updated for modern times” but also as-is, as written. Pat: What do you mean? Rick: It’s as if you were to watch Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet and a straight, full-on Elizabethan version of the play at the sam...

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels in Edmonds Saturday night, I was part of a discussion about writing a story as a straight play versus writing it as a musical and the possibilities that each medium might open up. Sunday afternoon provided an illustration of the difference in the form of the Edmond’s Driftwood Players ’s production of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels . I saw (part of) the 1988 film recently. Steve Martin, Michael Caine, what’s not to love, right? The movie, sadly. There is a scene where Steve Martin (as Freddy) is pretending to have no feeling in his legs. Michael Caine (as Lawrence) whacks Freddy repeatedly in order to get him to react and reveal the scam. It came across as predictable, plodding and sadistic. The same scene, done by Driftwood in the musical number, Ruffhousin' Mit Shüffhausen, complete with yodeling and choreography highlighted the zaniness, not the pain. It was hilarious. Instead of waiting for the scene to be over, I wanted more. Google describes th...

"I don't think you go to a play to forget, or to a movie to be distracted. I think life generally is a distraction and that going to a movie is a way to get back, not go away." - Tom Noonan I saw Big Rock at West of Lenin tonight and I am inspired to write about it. But as I sit here less than an hour later, the play is bringing up so many thoughts and emotions, I'm not sure where to start. That’s why I led with the quote from actor Tom Noonan. Big Rock took me inside the hearts of its three (really four) characters. There were mirrors to look into to see myself, and lenses to look through to see how life is. The characters did look -- especially Signe (Meg McLynn) and her father Harris (Todd Jefferson Moore.) Signe traveled across the country to see her father. When they met, what they saw in themselves and each other was heartbreaking for them -- and for me. It’s powerful what happens during and what comes after. Photo from West of Lenin. Original...

I saw Sam Shepard’s True West done by Porch Couch Productions at Red Curtain Foundation for the Arts last night in Marysville. They gave the Saul character more agency. The way I had read it and seen it previously, Saul was a weapon that the brothers, Lee and Austin, use in their fight against each other. In this production, Saul is more active. In his first scene, he expresses a sexual interest in Austin. This gives Lee yet another thing to try to steal from his brother. He steals Austin’s personal relationship with Saul, whatever it may have been, as well as their professional relationship. This also calls into further question exactly what happened at the golf outing the next morning. The script already leaves it a little unclear whether Saul “liked [the] story, pure and simple” as Lee says, or whether Lee won a bet. Now it’s possible that Lee literally screwed Austin out of his job. Later in the show, it’s clear that Saul has abandoned whatever interest he may have had ...