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. Pork Filled Players presents “Vietgone” with SIS Productions.
Aug. 9-24; Theatre Off Jackson, 409 Seventh Ave. S.
, Seattle; $10-$50; 206-486-0375, porkfilled.com I’m betting that if you were conscious (and definitely if you were a tweenage girl) in 1997, you were painfully stricken with “Titanic” fever, in love with Leo DiCaprio and/or Kate Winslet, and sobbing over a film so long it required two VHS tapes to watch at home. Decades later, Jeff Schell and Ryan Dobosh (of local sketch comedy group The Habit) turned that epic tragi-romance into a parody musical, directed with flair by another Habit member, Mark Siano.
Back for its second year in a row, “Titanish” takes James Cameron’s story of doomed, cross-class lovers on the luxurious ocean liner none too seriously — and yes, if memory serves, there is Celine Dion. Aug. 22-Sept.
22; Seattle Public Theater, 7312 W. Green Lake Drive N., Seattle; $10-$100; 206-524-1300, seattlepublictheater.
org A world-premiere play by a talented local writer shouldn’t be missed, so get thee to Washington Ensemble Theatre, which is kicking off its 21st season with Seattle playwright and director Rebecca Tourino Collinsworth’s “Cowboys with Questions.” Collinsworth, who is also managing artistic director of Parley Productions and a tireless advocate for new plays, took inspiration for this piece from modern-day cults and from Euripides’ tragedy “The Bacchae,” a story of Dionysian revenge. Collinsworth’s reinvention centers on George, the charismatic leader of an isolated community that is disrupted when a cowboy rolls in.
According to the theater, “this play is a thought-provoking exploration of human behavior, inviting audiences to question their own desires for community and the boundaries they are willing to cross in its pursuit.” I live for thoughtful excavations of big, abstract, human questions, so this is a big yes for me — but if I’m being totally honest, they had me at “cults.” Aug.
30-Sept. 15; 12th Avenue Arts, 1620 12th Ave., Seattle; $30-$45; 206-325-5105, washingtonensemble.
org.
