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Most of us have grown up with the tale of Ebeneezer Scrooge rediscovering his Christmas spirit and, while the story doesn’t change, our relationship to the story does. Sometimes life makes Scrooges of us all with its litany of heartbreak, missed opportunities and too much time wasted stressing about careers and money. That’s what makes Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol so immortal. Continue reading
What is it about the encroaching cold and dark that sends us shivering out into the night in search of a collective theater experience? Local theaters can smell our desire, and like an expert patisserie, they set out the most familiar, uplifting theatrical fare to tempt us. There will be no angst-ridden, painful social statements made on stage this December. The holiday theater season is about warm, familiar classics to satisfy an audience hungry for community and tradition. Continue reading
On the surface, Irish author Martin McDonagh’s plays are foul, transgressive affairs, full of piss and vinegar and erect middle fingers. In the tradition of his literary forbears Swift, Joyce and Beckett, McDonagh is a relentlessly physical writer given to depicting all manner of human grotesquery — violence, perversion, degradation, deformity and compulsive cussing of the worst kind. Continue reading
Playwright David Ives (A Flea in Her Ear, Venus in Fur) calls his play The School for Lies a “translaptation” of French playwright Molière’s classic 1666 farce The Misanthrope. Lies is now playing at University Theatre under the direction of Tricia Rodley. Ives has maintained much of the source material’s language. The play is written in rhyming verse, and Ives adds well-timed modern zingers for comic effect. Continue reading
Former Register-Guard columnist Bob Welch spins his popular Oregon stories for a live audience, Nov. 5-6. “I had a great ride for 24 years and I wanted to find a way to say thank you,” Welch says. Enter live theater. “It’s a celebration of our state in stories, songs, images and, of course, s’mores,” Welch says. An Oregon native, Welch is clearly smitten. Continue reading
A delightfully satirical sendup, 2001’s Urinetown: The Musical by Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis, pokes fun at everyone, from poet Bertolt Brecht and Les Miz, to our legal system, politics and capitalism. Refreshingly irreverent, Urinetown is a musical’s musical, and it’s given the five-star treatment by the capable team at South Eugene High School (SEHS). Continue reading
[Editor’s note: EW originally printed this article with the wrong cast names. We are very sorry for the error. The names have been corrected. Please see our post addressing this mistake and debunking the rumor that we reprinted an old review here.] Continue reading
What would you give up for a fabulous, famous life of brilliant academia? What would you sacrifice for the sacred, animal warmth of family? Pulitzer-nominated Rapture, Blister, Burn digs into these uncomfortable questions of feminism. Continue reading
Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland consistently delivers up ancient texts in modern, fresh ways. Their Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz, is no exception, delighting – and ultimately transcending – with an interpretation as fresh and relevant as anything on the contemporary stage. Continue reading
The Jayanthi Raman Company performed for a small but appreciative audience Saturday night, October 3. The performance featured choreography, design, costumes and lighting design by Raman, to varying effect. Continue reading