15 Bytes, Utah’s Arts Magazine calls Tigers Be Still, a “remedy for depression.”
A Remedy for Depression at Pygmalion’s Tigers Be Still
BY ANN POORE ON OCTOBER 21, 2018 • ( LEAVE A COMMENT )
Lane Richins and Kaitlin Lemon in Pygmalion’s Tigers Be Still
There’s nothing funny about depression — ‘tis the season for an onslaught of the crippling mental illness in Utah, a state whose residents statistically are particularly prone to it. (Perhaps it’s more prevalent here during Pride than Yuletide?) That said, Pygmalion Productions is presenting an adult contemporary comedy about a goodly number of characters caught in its grasp – and for reasons that eventually add a necessary piquant balance to all those lines that make an audience chuckle.
“Tigers Be Still,” billed as a comedy about depression, is a rewarding production: combining spot-on casting with a fine script by Kim Rosenstock, it is insightfully acted with costumes, sets and lighting that nicely serve to enhance the whole.
Sherry (played by an effervescent and perfectly cast Kaitlin Lemon) has a newly minted MFA in art therapy and a position at the local high school through her bedridden mother’s intercession with an old boyfriend — now the principal there (the familiar Salt Lake City actor Lane Richins in another gifted performance). Sherry has taken it upon herself (now that she’s bootstrapped her way up from depression) to get her depressed sister, Grace (Liz Whittaker, in a memorable performance — attired in dirty PJ bottoms and a Picattso T-shirt), off the sofa and the Jack Daniels; their equally depressed mother out of the locked upstairs bedroom; a couple of undoubtedly depressed Chihuahuas out of the padlocked closet downstairs; and the disturbed principal’s son Zack (Jordan Briggs, who looks to be about 15, but acts as compellingly as anyone with a long-held Equity card), out of his mother’s shoe closet while she’s about it.
Then there’s the dangerous tiger that escaped from the local zoo still at large. Shivers!
All of this is under the more than capable direction of Elizabeth Golden, a Utah native and UVU grad who received her MFA in acting from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoir in the UK and who also has a one-woman show (“Do You Want to See Me Naked?”) headed to the United Solo Festival in New York City next month. PYGmalion Theatre Co. draws a top-notch cast and staff.
Read the full 15 Bytes Review here
FRONT ROW REVIEWERS REVIEW OF TIGERS BE STILL
There is a lovely Eighties vibe in PYGmalion Productions’ season opener of Tigers Be Still, a 2010 play by Kim Rosenstock. Each of the four characters struggles to cope with depression brought on by significant events or circumstances. And, in this pleasing production, a Utah premiere directed by Elizabeth Golden, the comedic touches bring out quite effectively the familiar sounding predicaments of the characters and the peculiar logic that underscores the script’s dialogue.
FULL REVIEW HERE
Front Row Reviews on Tigers Be Still 