Sunday, July 31, 2005

The Front Page

Mt. Hood Repertory Theatre Company
July 30, 2005; closes August 20, 2005

Thesis still sizzles (KPTV, anyone? Or look at today’s virtual pressroom: http://pdxmediawatch.blogspot.com/), but this production is as captivating as yesterday’s news. Fascinating, time-capsule script hard to sell without exceptional clarity in direction, sense of style, attention to detail, dexterous cast reeking of ambition. Oversized set, puzzling lighting and icy-cold house.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Er, sorry, but there seems to be a grammatical snag in compressing this review to 50 words. Do you mean the show is lacking a "dexterous cast, reeking of ambition," just as it lacks clear direction and handle on style? Or, does it lack these other things despite having a dexterous, ambitious cast?

followspot said...

The former, with the "reeking of ambition" applying, really, to the characters, of course, not the actual actors. Just seemed to me that each and every character in that play has such clear motivation for one thing or another, but that do-anything-to-get-a-story, hard-nosed ambition didn't quite come through for me.

Anonymous said...

Fair enough.