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Outrage

Itamar Moses' play "Outrage" opened this weekend at the Bloomington Playwrights Project in a production directed by Rick Fonte. "Outrage" is a three ring circus of a play with the infighting at a university as the present day on the left, the hub ub over Galileo and the Church in the Italian Renaissance on the right and the conflict between Socrates and the leaders of Athens in the middle.

Our host, and a gracious and charming host, was Mathew Sims as the playwright Bertolt Brecht.

John Edward Kinzer appeared as a stick in the mud, scheming English Department head. Lynn Crecelius was his disorganized adversary. Jayson Wickenkamp was the unwitting, but canny student who fuels their controversy. Angela Mathis was the outwitted dean.

In and around the university story of "Outrage," the other stories developed. Hal Kibbey was the quibbling but resolutely self-sacrificing Socrates. Meaghan Andrew Wilson was the perfect foil as the perennially agreeable student, Polites. Mathew Scott Isler was the Athenian boy-toy Alcibiades.

Joel Pierson was all amiability as the contentious anti-church gadfly and supporter of Galileo, the Renaissance miller Domenico Scandella.

Shifts back and forth between periods, characters and even double takes on their stories in "Outrage" were neatly handled and Sims as Brecht was always handily available to help the audience.

Itamar Moses' play has a good deal of fun with all of its settings and characters. None of the people or their tales, from the classics to the present, are above or below a bit of satire. Along the way, a series of hapless grad students presented some pretty hilarious thesis topics. Bertolt Brecht himself, took a bit of static as he was continually irritated that audiences for his play of Galileo weren't getting the distancing from identification that was one of the hall marks of his dramatic portfolio.

"Outrage" is a frequently amusing and often thought provoking piece being presented in a solid production by a talented and dedicated cast.

The Bloomington Playwrights Project production of Itamar Moses' Reva Shiner award winning play "Outrage" will be repeated Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons through February 25th.

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