Performance Critiques
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.
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.
Intersections: A Celebration of Seattle Performance - Comedy, Representation, and Intersectionality!
The DeConstruct team interviews Intersections Festival curators Natasha Ransom, Kinzie Shaw, Jekeva Philips to discuss opportunities to showcase the diversity of the Seattle performance scene.
Ghostly Historical Knowledge: SCT's The Journal of Ben Uchida: Citizen 13559
Viewing Seattle Children's Theatre's production of The Journal of Ben Uchida: Citizen 13559, Steph Hankinson and the review team remind readers that we can be "challenged (both emotionally and intellectually) by encountering the ugliest, most complicated parts of history" through the powerful tool of performance.
Politics Again, Politics Otherwise: Lingering Questions from Frost/Nixon
Jenny Van Houdt and the review team query and answer the questions brought up by Strawberry Theatre Workshop's timely production of Frost/Nixon: Why This Play? Why Women? Why Here and Now?
Seattle Repertory Theatre Re-tells the Black Experience in Two Trains Running
Anthony Reynolds and the review team highlight how Juliette Carrillo’s production of August Wilson’s Two Trains Running emphasizes the diverse and positive history of the shared Black experience “without the influence of white perspective to heavily mask their stories.”
Queer Performance in Unsafe Spaces: The Nance Looks Back at New York Theater's Censorious Past
Liz Janssen and the review team provide much-needed additional historical context for ArtsWest's thought-provoking and well-performed production of The Nance.
The Curse of Gender and Empty Promise of Urbanization in Modern-Day China
Kate Forster and the review team uncover the possibilities of the "unrealized potential" in Desdemona Chiang's "puzzling interpretation" of The World of Extreme Happiness.