The SunBreak » west of lenin

Existential Dread Wants to be Funny

StefanDW — Fri, 22 Aug 2014 16:08:13 +0000

Get ready, Seattle, here comes Beckettfest! Yes, More than a dozen performance producing organizations throughout Seattle will be performing works of Sam Beckett including Waiting for Godot and that one with people in the trash cans. It’s depressing. Nothing happens. It’s inscrutable. It’s slapstick! Yes, Beckett is funny. If you’ve seen Beckett’s work you know—or … Continue reading →

Ideas abound at the second annual SOAP Fest

Chris Burlingame — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 16:42:05 +0000

The second annual Sandbox One-Act Play Festival opened last night to a packed crowd at Fremont’s West of Lenin theatre. (Read about SOAP Fest Uno here.) Four differing short plays were featured, all using the short play format to advance ideas, in one way or another. And if a particular play doesn’t work, you’re only … Continue reading →

Secrets, lies, love, death, and family dysfunction are ready for their close up in Royal Blood

Chris Burlingame — Tue, 25 Mar 2014 15:54:58 +0000

Royal Blood, the latest play from local playwright Sonya Schneider, made its world premiere last weekend at West of Lenin. While not quite perfect, it’s a family drama that I have been unable to stop thinking about once I left the theater Sunday evening. It’s engrossing. It’s about the lies we tell our families, and … Continue reading →

From “Master Harold” to “Mud,” Small Shows Deliver Big

Michael van Baker — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 22:14:30 +0000

Athol Fugard's play was seemingly everywhere after its 1982 premiere, first as a challenge to apartheid, then as its obituary. To see it now is to be struck by how unerring Fugard is in finding the personal in racism's sustenance (bitterness, shame, striving). Apartheid boycotts are not in the headlines, but South Africa is still peopled by those wounded by the shorthand of skin color for social class.

Adventuresome Forms Take Shape at Sandbox Radio Live!

StefanDW — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 18:17:35 +0000

Aside from the technical achievements the music is far and away the strongest piece of this collaboration. Music Director José “Juicy” Gonzales leads on piano with five-string bass, drums, and clarinet doubling on accordion. Ms. Law chimes in on keyboard while keeping the show on track as producer. The band provides the through line for the production with effective underscoring and an inclination for funk when the music is able to take the focus.

Tommy Smith’s White Hot Hope You Can’t Believe In

Michael van Baker — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:17:53 +0000

So Bri, who is also director Braden Abraham, filling in for Tommy Smith, says to his wife Lil, or at her, she's more of an accidental audience to his narcissistic monologue, that this guy he knows has written this story about thoroughly unlikeable characters, and even worse, there's no optimism at all, none, and you have got to have optimism.