Willamette Week

The Five Plays We’re Most Excited About Seeing in 2018

Here are the five plays that we’re most looking forward to for the rest of the season.

“Hotel Gone” Is A Manic Half Play, Half Interpretive Dance Show

There’s something to be said about live theater built on uncertainty and abstraction. Not fully grasping what you see can force you to piece together your own definition. But ambiguity needs to be balanced with accessibility. In order to make us want to do the work of figuring it out, a play has to be willing to reach out to its audience with an access point that offers some emotional payoff.

A Stage Adaptation of Raymond Carver Stories Is More Inventive Than Its Source Material

Men are portrayed as treacherous, sex-crazed animals and women as hysterical homemakers who meekly cower in the face of confrontation. The dispiriting view of gender looks frustratingly narrow compared to Mouawad’s bold creative flourishes, like filling the play with music by Béla Bartók and Igor Stravinsky.

Imago Unleashes Something Bloodthirsty With A Modernized Medea

In Euripides’ version of “Medea,” the bloody plot includes a scene featuring “a chariot drawn by dragons.” But Mouawad keeps his Medea simple. There is no furniture, there’s barely any props. The only set used is Imago’s tilting stage, which wobbles as the actors move across it, evoking the shifting balance of power between Medea and Jason.

Imago Theatre's Latest Production Trades Dialogue For Interpretive Dance

A one-act oddity from playwright Sam Shepard’s mammoth body of work, Savage/Love is 19 staged love poems written by Shepard and Joseph Chaikin. The script doesn’t allude to setting, and there’s no dialogue, which means directors can flesh it out however they want. In Imago’s case, through interpretive dance.

Imago Theatre's Latest Production Trades Dialogue For Interpretive Dance

A one-act oddity from playwright Sam Shepard’s mammoth body of work, Savage/Love is 19 staged love poems written by Shepard and Joseph Chaikin. The script doesn’t allude to setting, and there’s no dialogue, which means directors can flesh it out however they want. In Imago’s case, through interpretive dance.

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The Five Plays We’re Most Excited About Seeing in 2018

“Hotel Gone” Is A Manic Half Play, Half Interpretive Dance Show

A Stage Adaptation of Raymond Carver Stories Is More Inventive Than Its Source Material

Imago Unleashes Something Bloodthirsty With A Modernized Medea

Imago Theatre's Latest Production Trades Dialogue For Interpretive Dance

Imago Theatre's Latest Production Trades Dialogue For Interpretive Dance

Imago Theatre's Final Season at Its East Burnside Location Gets a Rough Start

East Burnside Theater is Closing After 24 Years

East Burnside Theater is Closing After 24 Years

Imago Theater Skrikes Out

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