Have You Ridden Seattle Rep’s <em>Or</em>, Yet?

Have You Ridden Seattle Rep’s Or, Yet?

Or, takes so many risks, it’s hard to believe they all work. It defies convention by refusing to define the time period with costumes and dialogue, instead choosing the ambiguity of mixing Restoration costumes with late ’60s glam rock, and mixing colloquial phrases with rhyming couplets. The ambiguity continues as each of the characters describe their amorous interests as based solely in pleasure and happiness as opposed to gender, or obligation. Continue reading Have You Ridden Seattle Rep’s Or, Yet?

Seattle Rep’s <em>This</em> Isn’t All That, But It’s Pretty Cool (Review)

Arts & Entertainment, Theatre

Seattle Rep’s This Isn’t All That, But It’s Pretty Cool (Review)

I don’t want to tell you the ending of This, because I didn’t like it and am trying to forget it. I wonder if it’s simply that plays like This shouldn’t have endings. It’s a play that ought, if true to its characters, reject the cathartic, everything’s-gonna-be-different moment. L.B. Morse’s set features–besides a kitchen, living room, apartment, and piano nightclub–a number of doorways that people hang around in, emphasizing their inability to escape the liminal. They prefer the ambivalent space. It’s fascinating how the attraction to maintaining live options can leave you with none. Continue reading Seattle Rep’s This Isn’t All That, But It’s Pretty Cool (Review)