Word: theater
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...GRAPES OF WRATH. Grittier than the movie, as panoramic as Steinbeck's novel, this 35-actor adaptation by Chicago's Steppenwolf troupe lights up the La Jolla Playhouse stage on the way to a late June run at London's National Theater...
...House of Representatives last Wednesday was part theater, part courtroom and part confessional. As his wife Betty wept in the visitors' gallery, Speaker Jim Wright played defense attorney, arguing away each charge against him; thespian, wiping his brow and lowering his voice to a whisper; and penitent: "Are there things I would do differently? Oh, boy." As the minutes ticked away -- Wright took more than an hour -- some began to wonder whether he was giving a resignation speech or making another plea for forgiveness. Finally the words that had caught in his throat for so long passed his lips...
South Coast Repertory Theater in Costa Mesa, which has emerged as one of the foremost venues for new work, served Henley well in its straightforward production of Abundance, a skeptical re-examination of 19th century frontier mythology through the eyes of two mail-order brides. Henley's underlying theme seems to be the way people change during the course of life, often swapping roles with intimates: the exuberant pioneer gradually becomes a timid drudge, while her starry-eyed friend hardens into an adventurer. The final scenes do too much too fast and too vaguely. But the script has the makings...
Marlane Meyer's The Geography of Luck, on another stage at the same theater, is an adroitly crafted portrait of assorted drifters, losers and desert rats that starts out sourly Sam Shepardesque yet ends in an eerie and touching echo of Saroyan's affirmative The Time of Your Life. But Roberta Levitow, normally a talented director, gave every scene the same pace and texture and allowed the frequent scene changes to dissipate energy and tension. Fortunately for Meyer, a staging under different direction is planned for this summer at Los Angeles Theater Center...
Minamata is precisely the sort of piece New Yorkers expect to find only in New York. There are no plans to take it there, and that is too bad. Yet maybe the best measure of the health of the American theater is that now New Yorkers, too, have to travel to see the full range of what American creators have to offer...