DEXTER LAKE CLUB Acoustic
night w/Brian Chevalier—6pm;
acoustic jam, open mic, n/c
THE EMBERS DJ Victor—8pm;
Current hits, standards,
requests, n/c
HI-FI LOUNGE Reggae Night ft.
El Dub w/DJ Xacto—9pm; reg-
gae jam, n/c
LEVEL UP Karaoke w/Kade—
9pm; n/c
LUCKEY'S Amusedays w/Chaz
Logan Hyde—10pm; comedy,
open mic, n/c
MAC'S Roosters Blues Jam w/
Skip Jones & Byron Case—
7pm; blues jam, n/c
MULLIGAN'S PUB Steve
Ibach—8pm; acoustic, n/c
O BAR Karaoke w/Jared—9pm;
n/c
OLD NICK'S Open Mic—9pm;
n/c
SAM BOND'S FOUNDRY Amy
Obenski—6pm; n/c
SAM BOND'S GARAGE Bluegrass
Jam—9pm; n/c
WHITE HORSE SALOON Karaoke
w/Slick Nick—9pm; n/c
WEDNESDAY 6/21
5TH ST CORNUCOPIA Karaoke
w/Slick Nick—9pm; n/c
BLACK FOREST Karaoke w/KJ
Powers—9pm; n/c
BREW & CUE Crystal Harmony
Karaoke—9pm; n/c
THE COOLER Karaoke w/Caught
in the Act—9pm; n/c
COWFISH DJ Smuve—9pm; hip-
hop, n/c
HAPPY HOURS Mama Jan’s
Blues Jam w/Brian Chevalier—
8pm; n/c
HI-FI LOUNGE Funk Night—
10pm; funk jam, n/c
ISLAND HUT Karaoke w/Jared—
5pm; n/c
T H E AT E R
JERSEY'S Karaoke w/Sassy
Patty—8pm; n/c
LUCKEY'S Wednesday Night
Groove Sessions w/The Sunday
Bump—10pm; funk, jazz, open
jam, $3
MAC'S Gus Russell & Paul
Biondi—6pm; jazz, variety, n/c
MOHAWK TAVERN Karaoke w/
Caught in the Act—9pm; n/c
MULLIGAN'S Open Mic—
8:30pm; variety, n/c
OLD NICK'S Faith Eliott—8pm;
indie folk, n/c. Abrams, An
Empty Room, Ü—9pm; hard
rock, doom, math rock, $5
SIDELINES SPORTS BAR
Karaoke w/Mike—9pm; n/c
VANILLA JILL'S Open mic—
8pm; poetry, music, n/c
WAYWARD LAMB Lipsync
Battle—9:30pm; n/c
WEST END TAVERN BTM
Karaoke—9pm; n/c
WHIRLED PIES DOWNTOWN
Amy Obenski—6pm; n/c
CORVALLIS
& THE REGION
THE DAM — Corvallis
TH Mr. Elevator, Wooden Indian
Burial Ground, OLD AGE, Drag
Rag—8pm; rock, $7
THE STILL — Albany
SA Rock 'n Rewind—8:30pm;
n/c
BRITT PAVILION — Jacksonville
SA TajMo: The Taj Mahal & Keb'
Mo' Band—7:30pm; $29-$224
SU Dustin Lynch—7:30pm;
$29-$53
TU Jurassic 5—7:30pm; $25-
$48
THE SUTTLE LODGE — Sisters
WE Heater Allen—5pm; $5-$15
SEX-POSITIVE
SOCK HOP
Eugene musician Katelynn Erb wants you
to attend the event she’s helped plan, produce
and promote. The event is The Joy of Sex: A
Celebration of Positive Sexuality & Art, a mix of
live music, dance and performance art happening
at Hi-Fi Music Hall in downtown Eugene.
Erb wants you to come to the event, but she
just can’t tell you much about it.
“We’re trying to keep what’s going on in the
main hall sort of a mystery,” Erb teases. “I’m
trying to figure out what to say without saying
much.”
What she can tell us is the event is a
fundraiser for MASV (Musicians Against Sexual
Violence). MASV helps build awareness of sexual
violence and safety among bar and venue staff
as well as music audiences in Lane County and
beyond.
Erb says funds raised will go toward providing
extra signage at local bars and venues. Signage,
Erb says, explaining “if you feel uncomfortable
please let the bar staff know.” As well as test
strips, Erb adds, “so if people feel like they’re
suspicious about their drinks, they can use a test
strip.”
Hi-Fi will be decorated in a ’50s sock-hop
theme, Erb says, with live music from Eugene
bands like Holler House and LeRev and many more, as well as dance performances from Pop Up Dance
Boutique and an appearance from The Farce Family, Eugene’s premier queer performance collective.
So what exactly will be happening in Hi-Fi’s Music Hall? After all, not much is sexier than a little mystery.
“We want to have an element of surprise,” Erb admits, adding: “I can give you one word to describe it:
scandalous.”
The Joy of Sex: A Celebration of Positive Sexuality & Art is 9 pm Saturday, June 17, at Hi-Fi Music Hall;
$10, 21-plus. — Will Kennedy
BY RICK LEVIN
KORY WEIMER AND
JENNIFER APPLEBY
A CLEAR CASE
OF BUNBURYISM
Cottage Theatre plays
it straight with Wilde’s
The Importance of Being Earnest
P
erhaps it’s just fate, a roll of the dice, but in all
the several years I’ve been reviewing the work of
community theaters, I’ve seen two plays pop up
over and over and over again, perennial blooms in
the revolving seasons of repertory stagecraft.
One of them is Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People,
which I really wouldn’t mind never seeing again. The other
is Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, appro-
priately referred to by its author as “a trivial comedy for
serious people.”
Ibsen is a great playwright, I suppose, though over time
his tendentious, preachy qualities have come to gall me; I
find him humorless to a fault.
Wilde is Ibsen’s polar opposite: witty, waggish and hi-
lariously passive-aggressive, a satirist who raises frivolity
to a divine art. The Importance of Being Earnest, Wilde’s
26
THE FARCE FAMILY
June 15, 2017 • eugeneweekly.com
crowning achievement, is a feast of clever repartee and
glittering one-upmanship, all of it bandied about among
well-heeled people behaving badly — sort of Seinfeld for
the Victorian drawing room.
Cottage Theatre’s current production of the play, direct-
ed by Alan Beck, is a straightforward rendering of Wilde’s
farce about two friends, John and Algernon, and the double
lives they lead (being, after all, “Bunburyists”) as they woo,
respectively, a pair of women, Gwendolen and Cecily.
The playful, rapid-fire style of Wilde’s language would
present difficulties for anyone, but the cast here does an ad-
mirable job. As Algernon, Josh Carlton shows a knack for
portraying the sniffy arrogance of upper-class snobbery,
though at times there were more manners than comedy in
his delivery. Kory Weimer, as always, is strong, giving a
sort of metrosexual flair to the earnest endeavors of John.
Jennifer Appleby, as the prim, proper and manipulative
Gwendolyn, is good, as is Elizabeth Peterson in the role
of her mother, the overbearing Lady Bracknell. As Cec-
ily, Nicole Trobaugh, all sidelong glances and exaggerated
erotic naiveté, is fantastic; more than anyone on stage, she
seems to submerge herself in the charming insouciance
that is Wilde’s forte.
Rounding out the capable cast are Steve Mandell as the
Reverend Chasuble, James Scoggins in the roles of Lane
and Merriman, and Karen Snyder, who gives a good turn
as Cecily’s governess, Miss Prism.
The sets, designed by Beck, are lavish but not too lav-
ish, and the late-Victorian costumes, designed by Ronda
Turnquist, are just lovely. In all, the production is consis-
tent and fairly orthodox, two words that, ironically, rarely
come to mind when considering the life and work of Oscar
Wilde, who once said that “consistency is the last refuge of
the unimaginative.”
Certainly, I don’t mean that in any vulgar or argumenta-
tive sense. I enjoyed the play, which, granted, I’ve seen more
times than I can count. If I have any criticism, it’s that the
production takes itself a bit too seriously, creating at times
a level of formality that felt a bit stiff. Among the cast, Tro-
baugh seemed most at ease with the rambunctious nature of
Wilde’s high-minded satire, and her energy and confidence
might prove infectious as the play’s run continues.
This is a minor criticism, to be sure. Overall, Cottage
Theatre’s production of The Importance of Being Earnest
offers a lovely reprieve from the weightier civic dread that
seems to have laid hold of us during these dead-serious
days. In this sense, the play is indeed timely. It makes fun
of our pretentiousness, our politics and our proclivities
with equal vigor, making us all look rather ridiculous.
As Wilde said, “If you want to tell people the truth,
make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you.” Or, you
know, throw you in Reading Gaol.
The Importance of Being Earnest plays through June 25 at Cottage Theatre
in Cottage Grove; $15-$25, tickets at cottagetheatre.org or 541-942-8001.