Theatre: What Is This Thing Called Love?

 The Effect by Lucy Prebble, Directed by Mathew Wright, Arts West through July 13

Arts West closes its season with a extremely powerful performance. The Lovely Bride took it in after an excellent Sushi dinner at Mashiko, then settled in for what turned out to be an excellent, amazing, emotional performance. This is one of those plays where I cannot say enough good things about it. 

The Effect deals with the meeting of biology and psychology. Connie (Anna Mulia) and Tristan (Morgan Gwilym Tso) are volunteers for a set of drug trials. The trials are overseen by Dr. Lorna James (Sunam Ellis) under the direction of biochemical entrepreneur Dr. Toby Sealey (Tim Couran, embracing the spirit of Steve Job) 

Tristan is a slacker who has does this before, and is there for the payout - he's flirty and nervous. Connie is a student and treats the drug trials as a personal test - she wants to give the "right answers". The drug itself elevates dopamine levels, which affects, among other things, affects emotions and falling in love.

And yes, things go off the rails quickly. Connie and Tristan fall in love. Maybe its their own doing, or the drugs or their emotions. They don't know, and it is frightening. They have their own challenges which surface in the process as they do not believe they have control of their own decisions. Lorna and Toby have their own emotional wounds driving them forward and affecting the results and what they choose to do with them. Lorna in particular is at the fragile center of the storm. Both couples spiral into anger and argument, and no one knows the truth of the matter. Are Connie and Tristan in love because of the drug or is the drug just affecting their own emotions? Are we all victims of our own biochemistry?

And it all works. The actors are frankly terrific. Their characters are human and relatable. The descent into doubt, desperation, and despair is completely believable. The dialogue is natural and often choreographed, the dancelike move of the actors. There are a lot of big ideas fighting with the big emotions in the play, and the bare-bones set of a simple raised platform, limned by neon lights, gives the actors the space to big it all home. The direction (Mathew Wright, also the Artistic Director of Arts West) fits all the pieces together marvelously. The resolution is ferocious and devastating, to the point that the stunned audience at the end was silenced for a few breaths before thunderously applauding.

It all left me shaken in a way that few plays do.

Arts West had an incredible season. Both The Effect and Covenant were among the best theater I've seen in Seattle this year. Guards at the Taj was heartbreaking, and Athena was very good (the Lovely B loved it). The weakest of the lot, the sequel to last years Snowed In, was still festive in the spirit of the Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland lets-put-on-a-show performances.

They did a fantastic job, and The Effect was the icing on the cake. Go see it. 

More later, 

Theatre: Kinetic Bard

 Duel Reality, Written, Directed & Choreographed by Shana Carroll, Seattle Rep through 22 June.

I've talked about Shakespeare-adjacent plays a couple times in these pages. These plays use one of the works of the canon as a base, shifting it in time and/or space, or just revising it to see what happens next or what is happening elsewhere. They are retellings, and as a result rewirings of the original. Duel Reality is one of those Shakespeare-adjacent performances, using acrobats and cirque performers to tell the tale.

The acrobats in question are the 7 Fingers troupe, who we last saw a couple years back in Passengers. Back then I mentioned that while the performance was top-notch, the performance didn't seem to have a lot going for it as far as an overarching plot. Here, we've got a plot. Well, mostly. And it is one that you know of - Romeo and Juliet. Again, mostly.

The performance takes its base bones from the original play in that we have Capulets and Montagues. Jets and Sharks. Two families, alike in dignity, poised against each other. In this case, we have two troupes of acrobats, Reds and Blues, who battle against each other in competition and in hand-to-hand conflict. And a Romeo and an Juliet from each side that breaks through the limitations of clan and tribe. 

And that's about it. The conflict of the original play provides the framework for the acts. pole-climbing and hula hoops (the party where the young lovers meet) and teeter-totters (for a duel to the death). Bodies are being suspended and thrown back and forth across the stage. There's amazing juggling. No family dynamics, no members of the family easily identified. No nurse or friar. Liberties are freely taken, and while a few beats are maintained and few lines sprinkled along to help direct the play, most of the story-telling is physical in nature. 

And it works. This is polar opposite of Eddie Izard's Hamlet - this is all dynamic and kinetic and waves at the bard as it zooms past him. The conflict of Reds and Blues is extended to the audience, who are given red and blue cloth wristbands at the start of the play, and whose seats are lit with red and blue lights. The troupe reaches out to the audience continually for approval and encouragement, and there are patrons on stage as physical supporters. The play ends with everyone dancing (including the audience), and, unlike Laughs in Spanish, it felt incredibly earned. 

As I say, liberties are taken, Great liberties. And you don't mind because the sheer athleticism of the group is overwhelming. Were I to pick a nit or two, that the overwhelming nature of the stage-wide performances often had me distracted by some incredible bit of business to one side of the stage competing with the main thrust of the activity in the center. Usually the Lovely Bride and I adjourn to a local restaurant to pick over plot points and writer's intent. This time we sat on the sidewalk patio of the local Agave, and dispensed with only a couple "That was great" statements. And it was.

Duel Reality finishes up this year at the Rep for us, and it was a rocky season this time. The best of the collection was Hamlet, which wasn't even on the initial list. Duel Reality was also excellent, as was Primary Trust. Mother Russia was very good. Laughs in Spanish and Blues for an Alabama Sky were OK. It was the most tradition plays - revivals of The Skin of our Teeth and Blithe Spirit, that stumbled and brought the average down. Now we just wrap up one more play at the Arts West, and we're done until August.

More later, 

Recent Arrivals: All This and North Texas, Too!

 There has been a slow accretion of new games here on Grubb Street for the past few months. Kickstarters fulfilling. Old games I found at my favorite local used bookstore. But generally things have been quiet.

And then, a large, heavy box, attached to a large, heavy deadline, shows up on my doorstep. The Three Castles nominees have arrived. 

The Three Castles Award (3CA) is given every year at the North Texas RPG Con, in Dallas, which this year is the weekend of 7 June. NTRPGCon is a small, definitely old-school convention that celebrates the older games of our shared histories, including the early editions of D&D. The process consists of four or five ancient eminences reviewing the presented product, filling out their votes based on previously-agreed-upon standards, and go from there. I am occasionally one of those grey eminences. Sometimes the project I think of as best doesn't win. Sometimes it does. Here are the nominees. 

A True Relation of the Great Virginia Disastrum, 1633, by Ezra Claverie, Lamentations of the Flame Princess, three clothbound hardback digest volumes - Volume I: Jamestown and Environs, 96 pages, Volume II: Lo! New Lands, 192 pages, Volume III: Prodigies, Monsters, and Index, 130 pages, 2024, 3 Castles Award Candidate.  Lamentations of the Flame Princess is a weird game in the literal sense – it thrives on the weird, strange, and occult. This is an extremely impressive adventure both for size (three hardback volumes) and the nature itself (An alien ship crashes into Earth, in the process creating a rip in reality 150 years previously outside of Jamestown Virginia in the seventeenth century). The melding of historical accuracy (a lot covering the time period) and outré strangeness (mutated plants and animals, animated corpses, alternate realities) make it a very interesting read and should be an interesting play as well. This is the sort of thing that RPGs can do very well.

The End of Everything by Alex Kammer and Alan Patrick, Frog God Games, 216-page hardbound, 2023, 3 Castles Award Candidate. Once upon a time, the 32-page saddle-stitched booklet was the standard for adventures, covering a single location and adventure. Now they tend to be larger, in full cover, and cover a lot more levels and a full campaign. This one couples an epic “end-of-the-world” threat (very Cthulhian in nature) with an out-of-the-ordinary fantasy setting (The Haunted Steppes of the Lost Lands) with its own unique cultures (horsemen, tribal groups, and convivial Gnolls). Carries the players from level 1 to level 12 and spans the width of this rolling, roiling land. Nicely done.

ShadowRim by Greg Christopher, Chubby Funster Games, 200-page digest hardbound, 2023, 3 Castles Award Candidate.  My day job is a Senior Writer on Elder Scrolls Online, so imagine my surprise when I saw this volume, which uses the ShadowDark rules (which it recognizes) in the Skyrim setting (which it doesn't recognize, at least not directly). It does not SAY Skyrim, but it uses the races (name-changed), pull-quotes from the game, the Skyrim map (available separately, but also name-changed), and a declaration that it was “Inspired by the greatest CRPG of all time” (again, without mentioning that CRPG by name). Oh, and the back cover has a hand print with the words “We Know” written beneath it.  It reads well, uses the ShadowDark layout, and looks like a labor of love, but … really?

Dragonslayer by Greg Gillespie, Old School Publishing, 298-page hardbound, 2024, 3 Castles Award Candidate. My gaming group has played in some previous Gillespie adventures – Barrowmaze and Lost Canyons of Archaia. We had a good time with the old-school feel, and our GM (hey, Steve!) transposed what was there into D&Dish terms (%E 2014 edition). This is the rule set that ties more directly to it. It is definitely old-school right down to its Jeff Easley cover, and embraces the original rules with a strong eye towards combat and a delightful lethality. Some of the material has appeared in the adventures where they first showed up, but now they are gathered in one spot. Strong, intense rush of old-school nostalgia here.

Don’t F*ck The Priest by James Edward Raggi IV, Lamentations of the Flame Princess, box set, 64-page hardbound digest, cards, dice, 2024, 3 Castles Award Candidate. Good points? Excellent production values, that outré, weird, mushy organic vibe that exudes from LotFP products, and a card-based dungeon design that actually works for the story they’re telling. Bad points – Black on puce interior text, unreadable death metal heading fonts, extreme sexuality and grossness, and edgelord GM approach that tells you that if you play the adventure in any way other than being a CPU for the brilliant design, you’re having badwrongfun. Can’t mention the title at dinner parties. Didn’t even know if I want to show the cover. It's there, but didn't like it enough not to censor it.

And the winner is: TBA

And as for the rest that has come over the transom recently:

Rapscallion by Elizabeth Chaipraditkul (Product Management) and Whistler (Lead Designer/Lead Writer), Magpie Games, 288-page digest hardbound, GM Screen, playing maps, dice, dice tray, 2024, Kickstarter. So I’m a fan of pirate games, and this looks like a good one. It is of the Powered By The Apocalypse (PBtA) family, so we’re talking playbooks and moves. One of the key things I like about this is the rising tendency to make the case ship as a separate character with its own playbook. This sort of group identity has shown up in games like Blades in the Dark, and creates a cohesive identity for the players, as opposed to just “You are adventurers meeting in a bar”. Worth further investigation.

Dreadnought Return of the Black Maw by Alex Beisel and Nicholas Ross, Liminal Artifact, 88 page softbound, 2024, Kickstarter. The was part of Kickstarter’s ZineQuest, but it really is a bit large for that moniker. It is a horror game with a nautical theme, where tidal waves destroy a fantasy-ish Port Royal and an evil black submarine (?) washes up in the ruins, leaking evil from its reactor.  Your choices are to investigate it or run away. Neither are good options. It is yet again Powered by the Apocalypse (uses moves) but is mostly statless and uses a unique fear (dread) determining mechanism - 2d8 roll against a third die (starts at a d4 but ratches up). Interesting.

Flying Circus by Erika Chappell, Newstand Press, 304-page digest softbound, 2020, Page Turner Books. OK, besides pirates, I always had a fascination with WWI air games. Dogfight from Milton Bradley, Ace of Aces from Nova Games, Richthofen's War from Avalon Hill. Flying Circus is a fantasy air game, which means dragons and biplanes among other things. It is PBtA again, and uses a playbook for your aircraft as well. However, the playbooks are not in the book, but can be found online, and the links provided in the book are no longer accurate. I had to dig around in Reddit and their Discord to figure out where they were. Cool thing, unlike a lot of PbtA, the game gets down into the nuts and bolts of air-to-air combat.

Cthulhu Dark Ages by Chad Bowser and Andi Newton with James Holloway and Mike Mason, Chaosium, 272-page hardback, 2020, Page Turner Books. So the conventional wisdom about old TSR was that it put out too much stuff – splatbooks and new settings and revisiting old ones. Yet the modern Chaosium has been doing the same thing and seems to be doing OK. This is a revision of earlier Call of Cthulhu books covering Cthulhu adventures in the medieval world, and is a serious, serious upgrade. It has the standard features of new and modified investigator skills, game systems tweaked to the new setting, and appropriate mythos monsters, but also has a history of 10^th century England, a new setting (in the Severin Valley, of course) and a few new adventures. Very well done.

Get It at Sutlers by Daniel Sell, Melsonian Arts Council, 110-page digest hardback and numerous small booklets, 2024, Kickstarter. Troika is a very weird little game, and this is an … I think “adventure area” would be the best description of it. Imagine a weird tales version of Harrods of London, or Mike Moorcock writing an episode of “Are You Being Served?”. The setting is an all-purpose department store (remember department stores? And malls? Yeah, good times), which has a eclectic clientele, bizarre staff, and unique and alien challenges. You’re assumed to be working a shift there. Bunches of random encounters. Sort of an opium dream of a setting.

 Bounty Kingdom Gazetteer by Simone Laudiero, Acheron Games, 184-hardback, 2024m Kickstarter. Well, half a Kickstarter – the other half (a monster book) will show up eventually. This is an expansion/setting book for Brancalonia, a whimsical Spaghetti Fantasy based on Italian folklore and more than a dash of Commedia delle-Arte. New races, new classes, new subclasses, then a long tour though the city-states of the Italianish peninsula. This one’s set up for 5E, but it is just a good sourcebook. 

And that is it for now (though more has shown up in the meantime). Stay tuned for the winner of the Three Castles Award, and as always -

[UPDATE: And the Winner Is - A True Relation of the Great Virginia Disastrum. Congratulations to Ezra Claverie and the LotFP team]! 

More later,

Play: Izzard's Shakespeare

 Eddie Izzard Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Adapted for the stage by Mark Izzard, Directed by Selina Cadwell, Presented by Eddie Izzard, Seattle Rep, Through 19 May

Wow. This was amazing. Just bloody amazing.

This is a one-person presentation of Shakespeare's Hamlet. The one person doing the presentation is comedian Eddie Izzard. I haven't caught a lot of her material over the years, but the Lovely Bride had and got us tickets. This was not part of the Rep's standard season, and was held in the smaller Leo K. Theater. 

But, wow.

Eddie Izzard is best-known for her comedy, so I expected comedy. A light-hearted take on a classic. And boy, was I wrong. This was a spell-binding performance that held the audience rapt as she essayed Hamlet in its dramatic glory.

And she plays all 23 characters - Prince, King and Queen, Ghost and Gravedigger. And she does it with a subtlety and grace that enraptures, moving from character to character fluidly yet defining each one with their own voice. Watching the full-bore performances of the Shakespearean canon, I sometimes get lost among the characters, costumes, and pageantry. Yet on this simple, mostly bare stage (set designer Tom Piper), Izzard commands every inch. Creating a sword-fight from both sides without swords is incredible in itself, yet Izzard pulls it off.

There was a bit of humor here. I mean, we are talking Shakespeare. The Gravediggers contribute their lines, and Izzard presents Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as hand puppets (oh-so-effectively), but for the most part Izzard plays it directly and honestly. The writer in me recognizes all the bits that we've since looted and turned into common phrases, but Izzard restores them to their proper place in the plot. And the soliloquies are pure and solid.

I've referred to a lot of Shakespearean performances as "Shakespeare-Adjacent" - revisions, modernizations, recreations, and inspirations. Examples include Fat Ham and Mac Beth. This isn't that. This is full-bore Shakespeare's plots, words and actions, but boiled down to their bare framework and presented in a natural, accessible style. Izzard's command of the language, accents, and the stage itself was simply marvelous, and the entire audience rose to their feet at the end of performance with hearty and enthusiastic applause. 

Now let me throw you the bad news - the rest of the performances (they already extended a week) are sold out, but there are SRO tickets available. But if you can, this one is worth catching.

More later, 

Play: La Risa

 Laughs in Spanish by Alexis Scheer, Directed by Damaso Rodriguez, Seattle Rep through 11 May

Short version? A pleasant afternoon and a pleasant play. Laughs in Spanish does not have high stakes or deeper moral meanings. But it is pleasant and amusing and sometimes that is good enough.

Mariana (Beth Pollack) runs an art gallery in the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami. The night before the big opening, all the art is stolen. Mariana is not taking this particularly well. Her intern assistant, Carolina (Diana Garle) sees this as a chance to exhibit her own art. Carolina's boyfriend, Juan (Gabriell Salgado) is an officer investigating the case.  And in the midst of this, Mariana's mother the movie star (Diana Burbano) descends on Miami, with HER latest assistant, Jenny (Cheyenne Barton), who Mariana knew in school, in tow.  Jenny and Mariana had a thing back then, and may have a thing yet again.

Throughout, the emotions are high and the stakes are modest. Everyone has their own secrets, but they are not horrible secrets (I mean, not REALLY horrible). Jenny is bright and positive. Carolina is passionate about her art. Juan is a big-hearted lug, like Joey from Friends. Estella the movie-star mom is loud and over-the-top. And they're a good ensemble.

The weak link is Pollack's Mariana. The character is written as brittle and business-like, the boss confronting a disaster badly and arguing with everyone around her. She is put-upon throughout, and wants to stay grounded and realistic, but ends up inert and angry, trying to weather the challenges with a frosty disposition and a sense of universal disdain. And yeah, she does grow a little over the course of her travails with career, life, and mom, but the movement feels slight. In short, as a character she's hard to root for, and difficult to laugh at. 

The stagecraft is standard Seattle Rep - high-tech but not overly intrusive. Walls slide away, hidden patios are revealed, vehicles are brought onstage. It works, but does not overwhelm the actors. 

The play brushes against topics include career choices, the Latino experience in the States, and the conflict between business and art, but it is primarily about relationship between mom and daughter and Mariana's own struggle to escape Estella's shadow. And it works more often than it doesn't. Let me praise with faint damns - it is a pleasant play. And that's part of the nature of theater. Not every play has to be epic or hit it out of the park or twist your emotions. Were there laughs? A few, but a lot more wry chuckles. But "Wry Chuckles In Spanish" would not work as well as a title.

More later, 

Play: En Garde!

 Athena by Gracie Gardner, Directed by Kathryn Van Meter, presented in collaboration with Salle Auriol Fencing Club, Arts West, Through May 4. 

Back to the Junction in West Seattle. Dinner at our favorite sushi place, a desert donut at the nearby Top Pot (which was also hosting a local distillery for a tasting for rye whiskeys and berry liqueurs), and the Athena at the Arts West on its opening Friday. A play about two young women. And swordplay. A lot of swordplay.

Mary Ellen (Anteia Delaney) and the aforementioned Athena (Allison Renee) are 17-year old fencers training for nationals. Mary Ellen is dexterous, gangly and introverted, fencing to make herself look better for college. Solo-named Athena is strong, loud, and pushy, fencing to prove herself the best. Mary Ellen is from the burbs and wants to impress her parents. Athena is from the city and has a rocky relationship with her father. Both are socially maladroit. They start practicing together. And the play is about their relationship as they cross swords and words and emotions.

They're seventeen, and all the emotions are on the surface. The conversations just tumble out nonlinearly, with whipsaw changes in direction and hummingbird levels of attention. And through it all you see the bonds growing between them, as they both want the same thing, and very different things as well. You're supporting Mary Ellen at the beginning (she's the underdog of the pair), but come to appreciate Athena as well.

The play is presented in collaboration with the Salle Auriol Fencing Club. There have been a lot of such team-ups in West Seattle's productions, usually other entertainment groups but this is the first one for a fencing club. The single setting is the piste - the long strip that combat takes place on. The action orbits around the field of combat, but centralizes there. And the fencing is ... real good, and carries the plot forward as both young women change each other. 

And the Athena is ... good. I liked it but did not love it, but then, I have never fenced nor been a 17-year-old girl. The Lovely Bride DID love it, because in her storied history she was both. I found it well-written, well-acted, and well-presented. Arts West has produced another excellent evening of entertainment. 

 More later,

The Political Desk Pops Off

OK, I'm going to be 'that guy'. The grumpy old man complaining about the responsibilities of the modern world. Blame the killer head cold that has been kicking me around since Gary Con, but I'm going to vent a little.

This past week a packet arrived from the King County Department of Elections with a ballot. And the ballot had one measure on it. One. The official title is Proposition No. 1 Regional Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) Levy. Its to fund the King County Fingerprinting unit. Yep. Fingerprinting.

It's a replacement levy for the elapsing levy. It is a property tax increase, but at a lesser percentage than the previous one. Of course, your house is worth more at this point as well. but doing the numbers, it is an extra 20 bucks on top of everything else. And AFIS has done a pretty good job for the past few decades, has been really transparent about their work, and touts their successes on their site. And checking on the web, there is not even a statement AGAINST this measure.

But,

But,

But why are you asking US at this point? Shouldn't this be part of the rest of the budget? Is this worth sending out ballots for something like this?

Well, they're asking us because thems the rules. You want the county government to boost your property taxes (even by about a Jackson) without your OK? You want a chance to be a part of the decision -making process? Well, here it is. Being a separate item also protects it from being put on the chopping block for some closed-door budget cutting (like, say, the mounted police unit for Seattle itself, which met its end last year due to budgetary constraints). 

And the ballots have a lot more on them, just not stuff where I'm living. School levies on Mercer Island and in Enumclaw. Fire Protection issues in Renton, Duvall, and Woodinville. And some of this stuff can't really wait around for a November election. 

I'm actually an opponent of the proposals to bunch everything together in one mammoth ballot, and as a result am willing to put up with this "pecked by baby ducks" approach to government. And if it is a irritant, its the same sort of irritant as getting your oil changed at regular intervals, or separating your trash and recycling, or taking those two separate bins to the curb, even when it's been raining for hours and you're really rather be inside because you already have a nasty cold. AND hauling them back up the driveway. In the RAIN.

But I digress.

Anyway, go vote when you get your ballots. Its practically frictionless at the moment, and requires only a little effort on your part. It shows you're paying attention. Despite all my whining about the process, I'd say let's keep the AFIS, and vote Approved on this. 

S'allright? S'allright.

More later,

[UPDATE:] Proposition one passed, 58 to 42%. However, only 25% of the registered voters weighed in on the matter, which as always, a little sad. By the same token, a hotly-contested school bond issue on Mercer Island also passed, with 50% of the citizens weighing in. So, good going, Mercer!