Taproot Theatre Company

Through April 26.Culminating on the eponymous last night of a major Jewish Southern society event--the Ballyhoo ball--The Last Night of Ballyhoo details the peaks and troughs of a Jewish family in Atlanta on the eve of World War II. More deeply, it takes on issues of familial tensions and clan identity.

Joe, a New York Jew recently relocated to work at Adolph Freitag's company, falls for Sunny, Adolph's niece. Through their courtship, Joe imports Yiddish and a New York ethnic identity to the Freitags' Southern Jewish household, which doesn't know the Sabbath from Seder and is perfectly happy to keep it that way. Dramatic fireworks, and some killer one-liners from the sparkling Uncle Adolph (Nolan Palmer), ensue.

All goes swimmingly as Ballyhoo pries into questions of Gentiles vs. Jews, Eastern European Jews vs. Western European Jews, and Yankees vs. high-society Southerners. The dialogue is snappy, the pacing is swift, and the characters are interesting. But playwright Alfred Uhry (Driving Miss Daisy) sets up too many bowling pins and tries to knock them down with a single, last-minute strike. I won't spoil the conclusion, but in an attempt to tie a neat dramatic bow, Uhry sacrifices his play's sensitive forays into culture clash and the complexities of discrimination with an awkward cheer for homogenizing universalism.

Despite this disappointment in the bottom of the dramatic ninth, Ballyhoo is captivating, and Taproot's production boasts a spit 'n' polish shine, with a stellar set, precise acting, and commendable direction. BRENDAN KILEY

The Speed of Darkness

Fool's Cathedral at Velocity MainSpace Theater

Through April 27."The idea occurred to me... Take a knife and cut open the earth, and with time the grass would heal it."

It's no coincidence that this quote from Maya Lin, the sculptor who created the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, perfectly describes the metaphor and the message of this fierce and moving play. It's 1982 and the memorial has just been unveiled. So great is the nation's need to see and touch that list of those lost that a version of the monument is traveling from city to city. Lou (played by Paul Klein) is a homeless vet who follows the simulacrum on its cathartic journey, right up to the doorstep of his closest wartime buddy.

Joe (played by Jim Hatch) is a successful family man who survived combat seemingly unscathed, but Lou's return brings unbidden memories rushing to the surface of his carefully composed life. The only way for Lou (and, by extension, the nation) to heal from these psychic wounds is to "take a knife and cut open the earth" to release the secrets buried below.

This is a difficult work, and in less capable hands, the knife might have shied from painful truths or slipped into melodrama, but director Jerri Lee Young and her uniformly excellent cast kept the blade steady and true. Take a break from the carnage on CNN and see this incredible, inspiring, perfectly timed production. Trust me, it will do you a world of good. TAMARA PARIS

The Yellow Wallpaper

Theater Schmeater

Through April 26.With the sad, frenzied beauty of a butterfly slowly suffocating in a Mason jar, Mary Jane Gibson portrays Charlotte, a woman forced by her doctor husband into a maddeningly strict regimen of bed-rest to cure her "nervousness." Her eyes bulge to the limit of their ocular cavities as she tries to distinguish between the reality of her husband's misguided intentions and her visions of women living behind the garish wallpaper that covers the room's walls.

The short Charlotte Perkins Gilman story from which this play was adapted has been a staple in women's studies syllabi for ages. Its feminist issues are simple and obvious: "hysteria," that mysterious affliction, has overcome Charlotte, and no one dares to question the diagnosis. Director Heather Newman has done well in explaining the sudden affliction with the quite real problem of postpartum depression, even adding a near-attempt at infanticide not present in the short story.

The fleshing-out of character Dr. Weir Mitchell (oddly played by the very stiff Jim Catechi) as a Tony Robbins-like doctor alters the story further to cement Charlotte's status as a victim--this time, by the career-building machinations of her fatherly husband.

For anyone who's taken Psych 101, Charlotte's visions of women in the wallpaper are obviously parts of her inner self trapped by the ugly demands of male-dominated society. These phantom women are powerless behind a flimsy façade of decorative paper. It's a beautiful metaphor. Unfortunately, with this adaptation's consistently flat dialogue (cut occasionally by the poetic interjections of Charlotte), it merely hangs on the wall. GREGORY ZURA

Moukabir Sawte

(noize redistribution)

The Infernal Noise Brigade

11th Ave & Pine St

Tues March 25, 5:30 pm.It started with an ungodly racket. Half air-raid siren and half screeching feedback, the noise pierced all ears within a half-mile radius. Diners in a restaurant on 15th Avenue wondered if Seattle was under attack. Other Capitol Hillers optimistically attributed the racket to a garden-variety fire or freeway pileup, albeit one serious enough to require the screaming attention of every ambulance and fire truck in town.

Meanwhile, those in The Stranger's offices gazed down onto the source of all the trouble--eight or 10 guys in sharp suits and hats, paired off on corners, where they alternately ran jumper cables to screaming siren-boxes and bleated through distorted megaphones.

Conceived by acclaimed music/protest troupe the Infernal Noise Brigade, Moukabir Sawte (noize redistribution) was executed outside the offices of The Stranger, KING 5, and the Seattle Times as "a way to give back to the pro-war media what you have so generously given to us--noise."

Never mind the speciousness of The Stranger's status as a "pro-war paper"; the INB's protest scored far more points as art, as for a few freaky minutes this sleepy city sounded like it was actually at war. DAVID SCHMADER