Why fight the traffic going into town to the Geffen Playhouse, or even more stress driving to downtown theaters, when we have, right here in our midst, the Malibu Playhouse?
On Friday, eight of our family went to take in “Belfry.” What a delight! We were transported right into the heart of Old Ireland. The accents of the five fine actors were spot on. All are professionals and members of Equity. The play by Billie Roche, smack in the middle of the Irish tradition of O’Casey and Synge, roistered around the inventive set by a brilliant Erin Walley. This allowed for swift and quite ingenious staging by Malibu’s own Veronica Brady.
The new artistic director, Gene Franklin Smith, and Claudia Zahn (sister of our City Counselwoman) took quite a risk in producing for Malibu this somewhat unusual fare. But the wonderful evening of theatre swept us all back into County Wexford, or into what one might see at Dublin’s Gate or Abbey Theatre, certainly matching, and I would say surpassing, fare at any other Los Angeles venue. If we all don’t make an effort to go to our own playhouse, we might lose this is fine theater right here in the heart of our splendid, but perhaps too comfortable, community.
Paul Almond