Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Ashland, Oregon
at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner by Luis Alfaro

A discussion of this performance needs be brief.  The reviewer shouldn’t put more effort into the recap than the play writer did into his creation.

This wandering, pointless story is told with juvenile simplicity, no character development, and plenty of sophomoric words coming out of the mouths of inconsistent characters.  Worse, director Tracy Young apparently didn’t bother to read the play since her playbill synopsis referred to both themes and details which were not present in the offal delivered to the audience.  Her failure to latch on to any coherent narrative or personality is abject.

There is an attempt to explain the weak connectedness and inappropriate speeches as a result of Alfaro’s magical realism. No. Thanks for the artsy-sounding red herring, but that’s not it.  Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner is simply a horrid blob.  Maybe it was a great workshop, but it is not a play. Shame on Artistic Director Bill Rauch for selecting it.  Bill, sacrificing quality on the altar of novelty is a stupid strategy.

Two reasons not to walk out mid-act: 

1. G. Valmont Thomas found vignettes in the jumble of words given him to say.  His scenes were revelatory when either intentionally humorous or intentionally not.  Thomas’ insights were isolated and not given a chance by the script to move the story, but they were fun to watch.
2. The avenue stage set by Robert Brill was fanciful, bright, and effectively magical.

That’s it. We didn’t walk out, but I recommend exercising your membership benefits and turning in the tickets you hold for this inexcusable waste of time.

Ozdachs Rating: