Category: Performing Arts

Of all the places one would think one would encounter daring, rigorous and experimental theater, it is likely that Port Townsend, the charming Victorian harbor town on the Olympic Peninsula, would not be the first town to come to mind. It would be even more unlikely for anyone to think of Chimacum, WA, a tiny little burg ten miles South of Port Townsend, as anything other than an unassuming hamlet. Yet it is here that one could find The Paradise Theater School, an organization that is perhaps Washington theater’s best kept secret.

The death of most Shakespearean productions is complacency. The director “knows” what the play is about. The actors “know” how Shakespeare sounds. The audience “knows” what to expect. But what if they don’t? What if none of this is true? What if everyone involved has to discover a play for the first time?

The Kathy & Mo Show: Parallel Lives, currently being produced by Theater Scmeater, was written by Kathy Najimy and Mo Gaffney back in 1989, which makes the play old enough to be considered a chestnut. This presents an insurmountable hurdle in providing anything but an empty frivolity.