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