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The Portland Tribune: Black and blue Leaves well done at Profile
Posted 05/30/08
Black and blue ‘Leaves’ well done at Profile
The company closes its season with a dark theater classic
In John Guare’s “Six Degrees of Separation,” the work that would earn him his greatest acclaim, the playwright demonstrated a knowing grasp of the rarified world of New York’s Upper Eastside elite. But that’s not where Guare grew up. A Queens native, Guare showed an equally firm handle on the sometimes threadbare lives of working folks in his career-making 1971 black comedy “The House of Blue Leaves,” which opened at Profile Theatre Saturday.
For protagonist Artie Shaughnessy (Ted Roisum), the striving is particularly acute. He’s a zookeeper at the Central Park Zoo, but he’s also a songwriter, and he’s not that bad. His stuff is a little clunky, but with a little coaching, maybe, and a break or two, he could make a go of it in Hollywood.
-Eric Bartels, The Portland Tribune, May 18, 2008
