Eugene Weekly

Some things never change, especially in Eugene, where great pockets of time stop and drop into a sinkhole of self-fertilization. Look at our eternal perpetuation of hippie nostalgia, which has become a cottage industry in itself, for better and worse. Marx noted that all great historical moments — like the long-gone Age of Aquarius, for instance — occur twice, the first time as tragedy and the second as farce, and for those among us who forget that Easy Rider did not have a happy ending, a pair of plays currently in production carry a strong corrective message. Continue reading →

“I don’t understand what you are trying to say. I have never understood anything you are trying to say,” says George, the protagonist of The Language Archive. Can you love language but have no words for love? George is a passionate linguist but a passive spouse. He cannot express his love for Mary. She, in turn, hides odd little poems about her unhappiness and then denies ever writing them, such as, “Husband or throw pillow? Wife or hot-water bottle? Marriage or an old cardigan? Love or explaining how to use the remote control?” Continue reading →

You can be in. You can be out. That goes for all of us, wherever we are. Every community, no matter how open, has its own rules and its own method of communication. Billy’s family is no different.  Continue reading →

John Oldman is either a “caveman, a liar or a nut.” A tenure-track professor quite suddenly announces his departure from the university where he has comfortably taught for 10 years. His fellow professors insist on the ritual of cheese, crackers and a proper going away, only to have their party ruined when John works up the courage to tell them the truth. He is 14,000 years old. He never ages, never dies and has been adrift in the world since the late Paleolithic age, learning about himself as the world comes to understand its own history. Continue reading →

“Why Star Trek?” asks Christina Allaback, an adjunct theater professor at the University of Oregon. “Why not Star Trek?” Continue reading →

If you’d been living in a swamp since you were seven, you might not be too concerned with personal hygiene either. Still, while he’s not the handsomest of guys, with his green skin, bulbous nose and trumpeting ears, Shrek has plenty of odoriferous humor and heart, and he’ll need both to save Duloc’s fairy tale creatures, rescue the princess and cope with his new sentimental feelings of … love?  Continue reading →

Movies are grand, but theater is alive — something to remember as the 2013-2014 season settles into its groove. When we recline in our cozy seats before the big screen, we are supplicating before a product, a bit of prefabricated horseplay that, despite our various responses, is as inflexible and immutable as a ride on a roller coaster. Continue reading →

Czech-born playwright Tom Stoppard was knighted as a British subject in 1997, a gesture of literary pomp that, while entirely deserved, nonetheless must have struck Sir Tom as a delicious twist of irony. Continue reading →

Brian Haimbach waited, watched and learned. His first year as the lead theater faculty at Lane Community College slipped by as Haimbach got to know the college and the community. Now, he’s ready to bust out some change.  Haimbach’s vision encompasses transfer degrees, acting competitions, community connections and the revamping of a vibrant old theater department. Continue reading →