Posted by Miss Lorraine
First off, bring your Google map directions with you. Waterbrook Studio is in a hard to find nook of North Portland but it turned out to be an interesting venue for a play. The building is a large warehouse by the train tracks and the performance space is a small room that holds probably 30 people. It felt intimate and personal in the studio, more like I was walking into someone’s living room rather than a theater.
The Re-Theatre Instrument‘s production of Teeth of the Sons by Joseph Sousa is a serious play about religion and family. To be honest I was actually dreading it a little bit, I’m more of a comedy or musical type of gal and my mom is an Episcopal Priest so I am familiar with the whole religion/family thing. But I have to admit I enjoyed it.
Joseph Sousa (Jacob) and Will Allen (Sam) play brothers who were once tight buddies but have since grown apart and become two wildly different people. Sam still likes to party but Jacob has become deeply involved in his Jewish religion. They haven’t seen each other in quite a while and Jacob is pretty sore that he’s been the one in charge of taking care of their grandmother while Sam has been off living the life of a drunken gentile. The chemistry between these two actors was great. A few times I found myself so wrapped up in the scene that I felt guilty for watching. It felt like I was eavesdropping on a private conversation and I forgot I was watching a play.
The roll of Sam’s girlfriend Maddy was played by Meredith Ott and while she did a good job, I just didn’t find her as convincing. She made me remember I was watching a play. Jamie M. Rea who plays Evelyn, an ex-girlfriend of Jacob, was very pursed and stiff, which was partially her character and partially the renaissance thespian that is Jamie Rea. Her role was small but she did a fierce job with the intense dialogue in her scene.
Enjoyable and well done, I recommend you support some local theater and check it out.
Oct 2-24th 2009
Waterbrook Studio
2109 N Albina #108
$15 Adult $10 Student & Senior
Sundays are Pay-What-You-Will ($5 minimum)
Purchase tickets online at www.retheatre.org
