Angela DiMarco as Isa Samuel Hagen as Mason in Knocking Bird
Photo by John Ulman
New company Forward Flux has two plays by women playwrights. The Umbrella Project, another new company supporting local playwrights produces Emily Conbere’s new play. Whip-smart company, Azeotrope, brings a world premiere with two languages, one being Deaf! September promises some amazing theater! Here are some of the productions you may look forward to the most.
The Children’s Hour, Intiman (at Cornish), 9/11/15-9/27/15
This production, helmed by Sheila Daniels, will relocate this classic script about the ruination of gossip and crowd-fearmongering from the 1930s to the 1980s. This is the second production in Seattle this year. If you saw the other, this spring, it might be doubly interesting to compare.
Green Day’s American Idiot, Artswest, 9/10/15-10/11/15
The Grammy Award-winning multi-platinum album created by Green Day was transformed into an electric-rock-opera of youthful disillusion. Johnny, Tunny, and Will flee the constraints of their hometown for the thrills of city life. But their paths are quickly estranged in a post-9/11 world none of them could have imagined.
Bloomsday, ACT Theatre, 9/11/15-10/11/15 (World Premiere)
Steven Dietz’s newest play, presented for the first time at ACT Theatre. Set in Dublin, an American man searches for the Irish woman who captured his heart 30 years earlier. Weaving in and out of time, we witness the very separate paths their lives have taken.
Knocking Bird, Umbrella Project (at West of Lenin), 9/11/15-10/3/15 (World Premiere)
A psychological thriller about a husband and wife who retreat to the woods after a car accident leaves her body and his mind wrecked. Between long walks to the 7-11 and a mounting, lingering obsession with birds, the couple grapples with a visit from the man who shaped their past and threatens their future. Emily Conbere is the local playwright gaining the support of this new company.
Sound, Azeotrope (at ACTLab), 9/11/15-10/4/15 (World Premiere)
Sound, a sign language play by Don Nguyen, is co-directed by Desdemona Chiang and Howie Seago. A bilingual play (in American Sign Language and spoken English, with supertitles) the play strives to be equally accessible to both hearing and Deaf audiences simultaneously. An impassioned dispute between a fiercely protective deaf father and his hearing ex-wife is over the use of cochlear implants to restore their daughter’s hearing. In a parallel story, 130 years earlier, Alexander Graham Bell is on a quest to invent the first hearing aid and cure deafness..
Barbara Blumenthal-Ehrlich (playwright, “Still Life”) and Wesley Frugé (Artistic Director, Forward Flux) -Photo by Troy Diggs
Green Whales and Still Life (in repertory), Forward Flux (at Gay City), 9/16/15-10/3/15 (one World Premiere)
Still Life: This world premiere offers a touching and humorous look at life and loss in the terrorist age. A series of subway bombings have shut down the city, and Lydia is stuck with her annoying son-in-law awaiting news from her daughter who was last seen getting on the train. To make matters worse, a celebrated photographer won’t leave Lydia alone. Honorary mention on the Kilroy List 2015.
Green Whale, by Lia Romeo, is a dark comedy. Karen is a middle-aged woman with a chromosomal disorder that makes her appear to be in her early teens. As a result, she has trouble meeting men – until her alcoholic sister sets her up with a suspected pedophile.
99 Ways to Fuck a Swan, Washington Ensemble Theatre, 9/25/15-10/17/15
A long, long time ago, Leda made love to a swan. 3,000 years later, Michelangelo painted a picture. 350 years later, Rudolph bought it. 130 years later, Dave and Fiona stand in a museum, gazing at what remains. Explore the dark corners of desire and the eternal mysteries of love.
