Performance Critiques
The Williams Project’s Pandemic Play Promises, But Does Not Fulfill
Catherine Blake Smith identifies shortcomings and successes in The Williams Project’s venture to challenge our current circumstances in their outdoor production of Marisol.
Staging Choices Undermine The Copper Children's Potential
Laura Chrisman and the review team find Oregon Shakespeare Festival's production of The Copper Children bluntly abandons and alienates the audience, leaving them without a clear narrative or purpose.
A Not-So-Queer Story About a Queer Story
TeenTix contributor Cecilia Carroll encourages readers to experience Paula Vogel's Indecent, finding additional complexity of the queer representation and visibility in a primarily Jewish story.
Celebrating The Thanksgiving Play
Lydia Heberling and the review team bring essential context, highlighting the necessity of Native stories coming to Seattle stages, beginning with Larissa Fasthorse's satire about the complexity of the Thanksgiving Holiday and performing whiteness.
Labor, Love, and Ennui in Uncle Vanya
Laura Chrisman and the review team examine the source and purpose of the title character's ennui and transformation in The Seagull Project's terminal production of Uncle Vanya.
Memorial Tattoos and the Fogginess of War in Seattle Rep's Last of the Boys
Stevi Costa and the review team critically examine the complexity, ambiguity, and socio-political/cultural contexts of veterans and the impacts of war on the homefront in Steven Dietz's Last of the Boys.
The Man With the Bomb: Washington Ensemble Theatre's B
Washington Ensemble Theatre's B brings up questions about anarchy, revolution, propaganda, critical history, and violence for Becs Richards and the review team.
And In This Corner: Cassius Clay Reminds Us That All the Greats Were Once Children
Sara Porkalob applauds Seattle Children Theatre’s production of And In This Corner: Cassius Clay, the origin story of Muhammed Ali, the “activist, champion, musician, and poet who would shape the political conversation around Black oppression, empowerment, and white supremacy.”
A Thousand Splendid Suns: Seeing the Sunrise Starts with Survival
TeenTix contributor Jaiden Borowski emphasizes the power of storytelling with Seattle Rep's A Thousand Splendid Suns, an adaptation of The New York Times bestselling novel about war, love, and perseverance.
Controlling the Narrative: Watching Richard III After the Kavanaugh Hearings
Emily George and the review team examine the "interesting and thoughtful" timeliness of questions raised by upstart crow collective's collaboration with Seattle Shakespeare on Richard III.
Social Satire for the NPR Crowd? Intiman Theatre's Native Gardens
Steph Hankinson and the review team examine the wildness, wickedness, and wokeness of Intiman Theatre's production of Karen Zacarías's political comedy Native Gardens.
Discomforting the Audience: Racial Satire in Artswest's An Octoroon
Steph Hankinson and the review team examine how Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins's An Octoroon rides the line between critiquing melodrama and exploiting its emotional devices.