GOOD PLAYS

posted by James Reel

    Today I'm off the air, but still in print. The latest Tucson Weekly holds my review of Scenes from an Execution, a production I suggest you see forthwith, despite some little problems:

    Don't be misled by the title. Howard Barker's Scenes From an Execution is not a death row play; it's a comic drama about the execution of what we'd now call a public-art commission in late 16th-century Venice. And don't be misled by that description. This is neither an ordinary costume drama nor an old-fashioned comedy of manners. It's a thoroughly contemporary play, mordant and funny, about a painter's integrity, vision and sheer misguided orneriness, and the state's clumsy dance with artists it can't quite trust to glorify its exploits. (Think Amadeus.)
    The University of Arizona's advanced student company, Arizona Repertory Theatre, has mounted a gorgeous production that almost but not quite does Barker's play full justice. The problems: intermittently effective but ultimately monochromatic portrayals of two colorful artists, and one directorial decision that yanks Barker's sharp teeth right out of his head. (Think Rent.)

Go to see Live Theatre Workshop's production of Broadway Bound, and you'll get the wrong idea about Neil Simon. You'll come away thinking that Simon knows how to subordinate gags to character and storytelling, that he can deliver scenes of tenderness without falling too far into sentimentality, that he can write sensitively about a woman who is no longer young and was never fashionable, that he will with the greatest integrity give a director and actors material of substance while remaining first and foremost an able entertainer.