Should I blog it when I see a forgettable play? I’m not sure yet – so I guess I’ll go ahead and briefly mention the Seattle Repertory Theatre’s forgettable premiere of Ariel Dorfman’s Purgatorio.
Tired of the naturalistic social realism of The Grapes of Wrath – and in their own peculiar fashions Dr. Atomic and the Seattle Ring Cycle as well – I was looking forward to a pleasant evening with the theater of the absurd in this European-flavored, Godot-esque retelling of the Jason and Medea legend as a two-person play set in a purgatory modelled on a psychiatric hospital.
But alas, while ably produced – despite a shockingly white set that blinded me momentarily when the stage lights came up – and acted – in particular by a truly volcanic Charlayne Woodard in the Medea role – Dorfman’s play never caught fire: its metaphysics were trite, its mythology overly psychologized, obscuring whatever contemporary resonances the story might otherwise have had.
This was new Artistic Director David Esbjornson’s maiden outing at the Rep, bringing to Seattle a play whose non-commercial premiere he also directed at Duke University earlier this year. A good production for a college dining hall perhaps – but not for a theater the size, and a company the caliber, of the Seattle Rep.
Makes you wish Esbjornson’s predecessor Sharon Ott hadn’t decided to step down – or been forced out.
The Stranger’s arts editor Christopher Frizzelle liked it even less.
