Sloth

At least one of my favorite actors and a few I don't know will be in Bruce B. Post's "Sloth," a Gold for Straw production at Tacoma's Theatre on the Square.

I don't get to review this show. Due to the way our "beats" are determined by the editorial staff at The News Tribune, other staff writers cover shows at the Broadway Center. I haven't seen this show, but from what I've read and heard it should be a show I could highly recommend. It's a comedy directed by Aaron J. Schmookler and starring Annie Katica Green, Rachel Permann, Dennis Rolly, Adam Utley and Jordan Williams.

The Gold for Straw website describes it this way:

"In this brilliant and funny redemption play, Harve, a widower and retired firefighter is left alone as the caretaker of the estate his granddaughter inherited when his daughter died. There's a firebug in the neighborhood burning houses down. The stable-boy caring for Harve's horses is getting restless. Will the house have to burn down around him to get Harve out of his rocking chair? Who is left for Harve to care about? And what will it take to make him care again?"

The director had this to say:

"It’s a rare thing to find a play script that is a page-turner. Scripts are notoriously difficult to read, laborious even – the great ones included. Novels walk the reader through all the details, action, setting, characters’ thoughts, and dialogue included. Scripts by contrast are almost entirely dialogue, and therefore a lot of work for the reader. Sloth was a page-turner on the first read.

"The dialogue is snappy, funny and compelling. The action is remarkable, despite the fact that Harve spends almost the entire play in his chair. And the play is heartbreaking. With loved ones passing one after another, how is one to cope with the grief and find the strength and desire to continue? What gives life meaning, and where can we find the spark when it’s been extinguished?

"Redemption comes often in small and unexpected packages. Sometimes the key to happiness is recognizing the opportunity for redemption when it reveals itself - and before it disappears forever.

"It’s a privilege to bring this World Premiere to Tacoma. It was written more than 25 years ago, and overlooked for production, we assume, because of the myriad technical challenges it presents. While those challenges are things we’ve certainly wrestled with, we believe the story is too good not to tell. And we trust the story to carry even where our technical solutions only hint at the story’s events. In fact, we see the audience’s complicity in filling in the blanks as an important strength of theater, and part of what separates this live format from film.

"We’ve had a blast working on this production to get it ready to show you.  We’re confident you’ll have a blast watching it."

Doesn't that make you want to go see "Sloth"?

The show opens April 22 and runs through May 14. For more information go to http://www.goldfromstraw.org/.