Dirty Story Tickets

Dirty Story saved the festival for me. All four actors were stellar. It was especially fun to see the range since all four had also been part of Romeo and Juliet - a very different play. I am assuming that a big part of the credit goes to director Valerie Curtis-Newton -- especially since this troupe was able to make believable and thought-provoking a farcical story line with incomplete and at times very awkward and just wrong analogical roots. The actors were professional - the book sometimes seemed to have a workshop quality. But this play did what Intiman is supposed to do (in my mind) - amazing performances that make you think.

Intriguing play with an unforeseen plot twist, acted brilliantly by the cast of four, left us with so many provocative moments and issues to discuss. Following the play, my friends and I were so deeply involved in discussion we walked past my car and had to walk back half a block!

"Dirty Story" is a very provocative play. You will be thinking about it and talking about it long after you leave the theater. The play is in two Acts. At the end of Act I, you are puzzled but just intrigued (or horrified) enough to stay for Act II. At the end of Act II, you are glad you stayed and are no long puzzled about Act I. Not that everything is wrapped up neatly. Far from it. There are four characters in the play and the actors are uniformly good. I have recommended this play to several of my friends. There's a discussion after the play but it wasn't announced until people started leaving. I think this opportunity for discussion should be printed in the program. And it certainly would help to have coffee available at intermission. Doesn't seem like a hard thing to do, although there seemed to be some resistance to it..

I had no idea what the play was about. so I showed up and found it was a political theatre. good acting the ideas presented were usual mishmash of "new thought", found the religious cheaps shots mildly offensive then remembered how really ignorant this generation is about religious process. the bondage scene was just sick and unnecessary; so small venue, overall good acting, might have made better street threatre to rouse the masses. i would say it would be good to spend your money in another play.

I came to this play expecting that it would not be PC, that there would be offensive references with respect to disability, that there would be sexual jokes and crassness. I also expected that it would be well done, interesting, funny and entertaining. In short, a funny take off on the Helen Keller story. The play was offensive and crass. It was not well done, interesting, very often funny or very entertaining. I kept thinking the second act would redeem the play. It didn't, though it was tighter and more interesting than the first, particularly the scenes in which Annie was teaching Helen and the scenes around the open mike. The horrid poetry was wonderful and the last scene in which everyone was singing and dancing was enjoyable. The intern playing Helen was, IMHO, the star of the show.

Being a fan of the playwright, John Patrick Shanley, and of many Intiman productions in the past, I had high hopes for "Dirty Story." I want to see Intiman succeed, recover its financial health, and regain its prominent place among Seattle cultural institutions. This, however, could make me reconsider. There are numerous problems with both the acting and the directing, primarily that the show is miscast. While there are certainly talented performers onstage, they aren't the right ones for these characters.I know, it's tough ding rotating repertory--all of these characters are simultaneously appearing in other productions in Intiman's summer festival--but that can hardly be an excuse. One of the performances is plagued by hitting only one or two notes; another is consistently too LOUD, another goes in and out of accent; and one is about 20 years too young to be believable in the role. Problems also exist with the writing, especially in the second act, where Shanley hammers us over the head with his Middle East metaphor. I've heard better things about other plays in the festival; perhaps you would be better off seeing one of them.

The synopis of this play indicates you are going to see of great political allegory. I was disappointed in how the story actually plays out. The cast is talented but I don't think they are working with very good material. I would have expected more from an established playwright.

If you've managed to avoid hearing the twist in this twisted play I don't want to spoil your experience. Suffice to say you are left in an intense scene at the end of act 1, only to discover in act 2 that the scene, while still intense, is something else entirely. Spirited performances all around, and definitely worth catching as part of the Intiman Summer Festival.

The actors are tremendous - energetic, intelligent, expressive. I loved the small space. It made the scenes feel like a crucible with the hot chemistry bubbling and doing its transformation. Well done. Not overdone, not underdone. Find myself continually replaying the play in my mind, finding more meaning and nuances each time. It is a great puzzle, strange entertainment, and certainly thought provoking. if you judge a wine by how long it lingers on the palate, then this play is right up there, rating in the high 90's!