Look Away Productions
July 28, 2005; closes August 7, 2005
Too bad this wasn’t a concert, because only thing going for this show was five minutes of Mont Christopher Hubbard’s original music. Otherwise, the most stagnant, stoic, grim-faced anywhere-but-here’s since junior-high catechism recitations. In contrast, emotional range among principals consisted largely of droning, shouting. Actors needed direction; director needed vision.
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Focusing on the Portland, Oregon theatre scene in precisely 50-word increments. followspot@hotmail.com
5 comments:
So it truly was a "Look Away" production, huh?
Yes, it was absolutely painful to sit through. 90 minutes of my life I'll never get back again. Look Away, indeed. Look Away from this play and do not come back to it! There's a time and a place for theatre this amateurish, and it's in high school where admission is not $15 and parents are forced to clap and say their less than talented children were wonderful.
I sat through this show on July 22nd or so. Aside from the one-note, but at least amusing portrayal of Herod, it was the worst show I have seen in Portland in a long, long time.
Avoid it.
Sorry to object a bit. Yes, Hubbard's music was excellent: perfectly fitting to the moment in the play, intense, yet none too sexualized. But the music was not the only strength of the show. McKernan portrayed a complexly motivated Salome, and her dress was awesome. Colahan as Jokanaan was righteous but deep, a pertinent example in today's political climate. The story itself is rather disturbing, and compelling enough to carry interest (and horror) to the last. The music is reason enough to see the show, but the context for the music is entertaining too. It certainly wasn't as atrocious as the previous anons seemed to think.
Three free Shakespeare plays in town recently (Othello, Taming of the Shrew, and As You Like It), with some fairly experienced actors and this amateurish debacle had the temerity to charge $15?
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