August can be a slow month in the theater world, as many companies gear up to kick off brand-new seasons in September. But in these dog days of summer, a chill night taking in the light and inventive productions that are on offer can be a great way to whet your appetite for the deluge of shows ahead. From one of Seattle’s newer theater companies, Latitude Theatre, comes playwright Christopher M.
Walsh’s gender-swapped take on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s eternally popular character, Sherlock Holmes. In this case, Holmes is trailing a murderer throughout London, but corrupt cops, a repressive culture and even her own brother’s interference get in her way. Seattle theater's love of mysteries continues, and I'm not mad about it.
“Miss Holmes” stars Camilla Kintana as Sherlock and Jesica Avellone as her trusted friend, Dr. Dorothy Watson. Through Aug.
25; TPS Center Theatre, 305 Harrison St., Seattle; $25-$35; latitudetheatre.org Is it a road-trip adventure? A memoir? A history play? A rap musical? Qui Nguyen’s “Vietgone” is some of all of the above but it is, primarily, a lot of fun.
Based (in some small part, anyway) on Nguyen’s parents, “Vietgone” centers on Quang and Tong, two young Vietnamese people who meet-cute in an Arkansas refugee camp in the 1970s. The story is told as a road-trip adventure peppered with flashbacks and poking fun at American culture in an irreverent spin on an immigrant story and an intimate look at the aftermath of the Vietnam War..