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The Highline Times (link
to the article) MONDAY, JULY
19, 2010
Parody of
Victorian proportions plays in Burien
By Aya Hashiguchi Clark
Everyone knows that white wines are best when eating fish or
poultry. Red wines go well with beef. But what would a good wine
steward recommend to accompany Victorian parody, bank failure
spoof and Breeders Theater acting? The answer is obvious: E.B.
Foote wines!
To be more precise, Breeders Theater's latest show,
"Withering Heights" will taste best with such offerings from E.
B. Foote as their bronze medal-winning ETC (a
Zinfandel-Syrah-Merlot-Cabernet-Cab Franc blend) and their
platinum medal winner, a 2006 Northwest Duet (a Cabernet-Merlot
blend).
A recipe for fine dining? Maybe. A formula for comedy, laughs
and a great time that will be had by all? Most definitely!
"Withering Heights" is an affectionate parody of the beloved
novels by Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters. The more you know
about their stories, the more you will enjoy this show.
Miss Clarity Fugue (Adrienne Grieco) is a newly-orphaned
debutante who finds herself saddled with her late father's
(Martin J. Mackenzie) enormous debt. How large is his debt?
Well, according to the bankers Mr. Kneckerbreaker (Eric Hartley)
and Mr. Sponge (Doug Knoop), it is monumental. World famous.
Legendary. Off the charts. You get the picture.
So it is left to Miss Clarity to find a way to live without
being sent to debtor's prison. One possible solution is to marry
well.
Thus, Miss Clarity and her best friend Darcy (Amber Rack)
must insinuate themselves into proper society in order to meet
eligible, wealthy gentlemen. Among those they befriend are the
dashing Dashwood (Steven Schenck), the quiet Eustace (Brenan
Grant) and the handsome but vacuous Janeway (David Roby).
Add to the mix the man-hating Miss Fedora (Laura Smith), Miss
Clarity's trashy relatives (Melissa Malloy and Martin Mackenzie)
and harmonious musical interludes by the "Jane Austen City
Limits Quartet" (J Howard Boyd, Doug Knoop, Megan Krogstadt and
Nancy Warren) and you've got a "parody of Victorian
proportions."
The Breeders Theater company of actors continue on with their
usual fine performances, getting plenty of laughs from the
preview audience last Wednesday evening. Adrienne Grieco is the
perfect Austenian heroine: pretty, perky, optimistic and long
suffering. Knowing that Ms. Grieco is also a fine singer, it was
too bad that she wasn't also given a heart-felt solo during the
show.
Making his BT debut, David Roby does very well as the comedic
leading man Janeway. It isn't easy to play pompousness and
willful ignorance at the same time, while making the audience
like you. He did.
Special shout-outs go to Amber Rack as the airhead Darcy, to
Brenan Grant as the man who cannot finish a sentence, and to
director J. Howard Boyd, musical director Nancy Warren and chief
playwright T. M. Sell for their fine work.
Oh yes, a "welcome back" to Eric Hartley for making a
come-back into the BT fold is in order. We missed you, Eric!
For a most amusing time complete with comedy, hors d'oeuvres
and fine wines, you won't go wrong with an evening of "Withering
Heights."
Show dates are July 21, 23, 24, 28, 29, 30 and 31 at 7 p.m.
and July 25 and Aug. 1 at 2 p.m.
Tickets can still be purchased for $20 at E.B Foote, 127-B SW
153rd St. in Burien or at Corky Cellars in Des Moines. Log onto
www.breederstheater.com for more details.
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The News Tribune (link
to the article) FRIDAY, JULY
30, 2010
Review: High
finance, romance mingle perfectly
By Alec Clayton
Attending plays at Breeders Theater in Burien is an experience so
unique that I tell everyone they must do it at least once. I even
tell friends in Olympia that it is well worth the 55-mile drive.
So what’s so unique about Breeders Theater? For starters, the stage
is in the E.B. Foote Winery and the actors perform between barrels
of wine. Wine tastings are offered before the show, during
intermission and after the show – all included in the price of
admission. And then there is the oddity that every play they do is
written by the same madcap writer, theater founder T.M. Sell, whose
talent for parody, plot structure and outlandish dialogue is
unparalleled.
Their most recent production is “Withering
Heights,” a send-up of
Victorian romance novels or, as Sell has an actor explain it
in an introductory speech at the start of act 2, Victorian chick
lit. Simultaneously, it is satiric look at the world of high finance
that is highly relevant in this time of financial meltdown and
particularly understood by Sell, who teaches economics, political
science and journalism at Highline College when he is not writing
plays.
The bankers Kneckerbreaker (Eric Hartley) and Sponge (Doug Knoop)
easily can be seen as CEOs of too-big-to-fail institutions such as
AIG and Chase.
“I like
Victorian romance novels, but they’re also kind of funny,”
Sell states in the program. “And although
Jane Austen didn’t write ‘Wuthering Heights’ (Emily Bronte
did), I liked the title.”
It’s the story of Miss Clarity Fugues (Adrienne Grieco), a poor
young woman who inherits a fortune (on paper), is cruelly
manipulated by the unscrupulous bankers, and searches for love among
high society gentlemen.
Publicity materials for the play call it “Jane Austin meets J.P.
Morgan,” and I would add to that “meets ‘Airplane’ ” because of the
wild use of puns and double entendre and other language play, not to
mention name-dropping and name confusion such as clever mention of
just about every Victorian novel ever written and about 40 silly
misconstructions of the name “Clarity.”
The acting is outstanding, and so is the singing by the Jane Austen
City Limits Quartet comprised of J. Howard Boyd, Knoop, Megan
Krongstadt and
Nancy Warren,
the latter of whom is also the musical director and pianist.
Grieco seems natural and at ease in whatever role she plays. As Miss
Clarity, she is the one stable factor around which all the madness
converges. She conveys confusion, anger, a kind of gee-wiz innocence
with very subtle changes of expression.
Knoop and Hartley play the bankers as snobbish and boorish and loud.
They’re like big balloons of bluster that you’re dying to burst, and
when they do go bust, they do it with great tears of self-pity.
These two great actors clearly are having fun with outsized
characters.
Two young actors who are beginning to make their mark in area
theater are Brenan Grant as Eustace, the misunderstood young
gentleman who is not allowed to speak more than a word or two by his
supposed friends and acquaintances, and David Roby as the boorish
Janeway, who prides himself on never thinking while thinking a lot
about not thinking.
Amber Rack plays Darcy effectively with exaggerated silliness and
lots of giggles. Laura
Smith does a good job of playing a very complex character
with the funny name of Fedora Chapeau (everyone calls her Hattie,
and she wears a succession of hats), who is disdainful and cynical,
and perhaps the only intelligent character in the play.
For an enjoyable evening out, I recommend “Withering Heights” at
Breeders Theater. Warning: bring an extra shirt or jacket because
the air conditioning is kept on high, and bring an extra cushion
because the folding chairs are rather hard.
alec@alecclayton.com
‘Withering Heights’
When:
7 p.m. tonight and
Saturday and
2 p.m. Sunday;
wine tastings start a half hour before showtime.
Where: E.B. Foote Winery, 127-B S.W. 153rd St.,
Burien
Tickets: $20 available at the winery and at Corky Cellars, 22511
Marine View Drive,
Des Moines;
206-824-9462
Information:
206-242-3852
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