Seattle’s ACT Theatre continues its 40th season with “Jumpers,” Tom Stoppard’s whirlwind comedy of ideas, slapstick and murder mystery that opens Thursday.
“Jumpers,” which premiered in 1972 and has been successfully revived in recent productions in London and New York, is a showcase for the verbal brilliance of the British playwright and his theater of ideas.
Stoppard’s stage credits include “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead,” “Arcadia” and “Hapgood” among many others. He’s a prolific writer, including for the movies, where his credits include an Oscar as the co-author of the script for “Shakespeare in Love.” This is the sixth Stoppard play presented at ACT, and the director is ACT veteran Jeff Steitzer.
George (David Pichette) is an academic about to debate a professor of logic (R. Hamilton Wright) about such lofty topics as moral absolutes and the existence of a metaphysical reality – God.
Stoppard overlays this philosophical debate with a loopy storyline that includes the murder of an acrobatic at a party given by a former nightclub singer (Erika Rolfsrud), a manic depressive who is bummed out to learn that man has actually walked on the moon.
“Jumpers” plays through Sept. 19 at ACT Theatre in downtown Seattle.
“Love &Taxes”: Playwright Josh Kornbluth goes head to head with the Internal Revenue Service in his latest solo performance, “Love &Taxes,” which opens tonight in preview at Intiman Theatre in Seattle.
Written and performed by Kornbluth, in collaboration with director David Dower, “Love &Taxes” chronicles the artist’s brush with IRS hell when he ran afoul of the tax laws and ended up owing the government $80,000.
“Love &Taxes” is also a bit of a love story, as Kornbluth recounts falling in love and becoming a father.
Kornbluth’s confessional style of theater monologue has included his childhood years as the son of Communist parents (“Red Diaper Baby”) and working as an office assistant to a tax attorney (“Haiku Tunnel”). Kornbluth will perform the latter work on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at Intiman.
The company has also scheduled six post-play discussions with the artist and legislative leaders as well as a talk with William H. Gates Sr., the Microsoft mogul’s father and a vocal proponent of the preservation of the estate tax.
Chris Bennion photo
Ian Lindsay (left), Matthew Bariletti and Ky Dobson lift Cassidy Katims in ACT’s “Jumpers.”
Mark Leialoha photo
Josh Kornbluth in “Love &Taxes” at Intiman Theatre in Seattle.
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