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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (June 12, 2003)
FA R M E R ’ S M A R K E T TUE 11-3 SAT 9-3 A BY BRIAN BOONE 29th 28th Willamette TRUE VALUE Oak • Lots of free parking FARMER’S MARKET • Over 25 farms represented 28th & Oak St. W hat if Edward Albee’s caustic classic Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf were aggressively soft- ened into a warm and wacky farce? For the results, check out Tina Howe’s One Shoe Off, currently playing at Very Little Theatre. The play follows a disastrous evening in the decaying, plant-ridden home of Leonard (Lloyd Brass) and Dinah (Darcy Guhl), a married-too-long couple enter- taining their pretentious new neighbors, Tate (the playful Alex Elkin) and Clio (Jessica Haverly), a children’s book editor and actress, respectively. Naturally, noth- ing goes right and everyone ends up bored or angry. Many clever running gags ensue, such as the dual inabilities for anyone to actively carry on a conversation or remember anybody else’s name. Nobody really cares about spending the evening together. Leonard and Dinah invited the neighbors over because they felt like they had to, and Tate and Clio came out of obligation, not the desire to socialize. Watching the couples endure the horrors of this is quite fun. Yet One Shoe Off’s best moments are not gags or symbols, but careful dissec- tions of character. Did Dinah cheat on Leonard? Will Leonard ever find work or calm down? But it often takes things too far, devolving into fits of inexplicable wackiness, such as Tate’s penchant for reciting nursery rhymes as classical poetry or Dinah’s continuous changes into crazy play costumes she designed. These tics are meant to show the characters’ nervous- ness, but the straight approach is funnier. Steve Mandell (Parker) is a fascinating and gifted comic actor. He shows great range, from pitch-black humor in one scene to heartbreaking pathos in another. Mandell’s subtle, spacey facial expres- sions, slow deliberate movements, even the direction of his sightlines reveal much about his character. Overall, the play is inviting and dryly funny with a fantastic (to say the least) set and a handful of good performances. It’s cute, innocuous and thus not terribly thought-provoking. Directed by Suzanne Shapiro, One Shoe Off runs through June 14 at Very Little Theatre. O n the other end of town and the theatrical spectrum comes Lord Leebrick’s production of Paula Vogel’s Pulitzer Prize winner How I Learned to Drive. The story, presented backward through the 1950s for full emo- tional impact, follows the sexual relation- ship of a young girl named Lil’ Bit and her Uncle Peck. On the surface, the play is about incest, but that would be far too simple. Vogel refuses to make it that easy. How I Learned to Drive analyzes the sexualiza- tion of children, the effects of alcoholism and the panic of adolescence. The themat- ic aim of the play just might be to de- romanticize the 1950s, cars and teen sexuality. Like Brecht, who wanted to motivate audiences to change social ills rather than become wrapped up in characters’ emo- tions, Vogel makes it hard to neatly pack- age Lil’ Bit and Peck into Good or Evil archetypes. Peck is a predator, but he’s human; disliking him is hard because he’s handsome, seductive and, ironically, great with kids. And Lil’ Bit is no damsel in dis- tress. She’s often cruel, difficult and a willing participant in the relationship. The acting is among Eugene’s finest in recent memory. As Lil’ Bit and Peck, Jennifer Coombs and Stephen C. Speidel have a layered chemistry that can be both sweetly romantic and painfully repulsive. Both are able to pull off the tricky Brechtian acting approach, simultaneously performing their parts while also being detached. Kim Bates is her usual brilliant self, particularly as Lil’ Bit’s fidgety, sexually repressed grandmother. Sharon Sless is at turns wounded and hilarious as Lil’ Bit’s mother and is both during her uproarious monologue on “How to Drink Like a Woman.” Bill Reid plays creepy teenagers and creepy old men with equal aplomb. Despite the uncomfortable subject mat- ter, the production is a delight of the the- atrical. The senses are assaulted with aes- thetic pleasures, ranging from the road sign projections to a warm, misleading light scheme straight out of a musical. The raked set, resembling a highway off-ramp, does exactly what it should: suggest but not overpower while serving as a versatile canvas. It’s not for everyone, but if you like theater that makes you squirm a lil’ bit, check out How I Learned to Drive. It plays at Lord Leebrick through June 28. ew ANNIVERSARY PARTY Saturday, June 14th at the Core Star 439 W. 2nd • 7 to 11 $7 don. F E AT U R I N G L I V E E N T E R TA I N M E N T SNATAM KAUR KHALSA’S PREM ENSEMBLE Divine Chanting (7:30) OM FOR PEACE With Tibetan Bowls (8:45) OPEN MIC MUSIC! Positive Hip Hop 6 6 6 Comedy at VLT, drama at Lord Leebrick. SWEET 16 6 6 Character Studies 6 ONE SHOE OFF CONTINUES AT VLT. 6 6 DJ DANCE PARTY WITH RAGING FAMILY STOREWIDE SALE 16% OFF ENDS 6-21-03 1374 Willamette • 342-8348 JUNE 12, 2003 29
