OXYMORON: GOOD ENGLISH FOOD

posted by James Reel

Two plays and a restaurant fall under my critical scrutiny in this week’s Tucson Weekly. Unfortunately, “fall” is the operative word in the restaurant review:

Last year's most appalling local restaurant news: Alan Zeman, one of the founders of Tucson Originals, was closing his excellent restaurant, Fuego, and selling out to a Canadian chain. The word "traitor" was bandied about in some quarters, but it seemed only fair to wait and see how things turned out. Yes, one should, as much as possible, patronize locally owned restaurants with unique menus attuned to the region, but restaurant chains are not necessarily evil, and you can get a decent meal at many of them, and besides, the Canadian company, Firkin, is a franchise operation; technically, the spot on Tanque Verde is locally owned. We gave Firkin and Friar--completely unrelated to Frog and Firkin, near the UA--a full year to get itself together and develop a following before deciding whether or not we should forgive Zeman.

I’m afraid that Zeman must remain unforgiven, and you can learn why I think so here. I’m more favorably disposed toward the plays:

Two people building a relationship, counselors have told us for years, have to compromise; each must try to look at things from the perspective of the other person. That idea is fundamental to two plays that opened here last week, and it's what leads Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park to its obligatory happy ending--but it's disastrous for the couple at the center of Tracy Letts' Bug, the late show in Live Theatre Workshop's Etcetera series.

Details abound here.