Seattle Gay News
Issue 19, Volume 46, May 11, 2018
Arts & Entertainment
SIFF 2018 PREVIEW
An interview with director Sebastián Lelio as Seattle’s premier film festival presents opening weekend screenings of lesbian drama Disobedience
Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams in Disobedience – Photo courtesy of Bleeker Street
by Sara Michelle Fetters SGN A&E Writer 44TH SEATTLE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL May 17 - June 19 DISOBEDIENCE May 20 & 21
It’s that time of year again. Starting next Thursday, the 44th annual Seattle International Film Festival kicks off 25 days of cinematic goodness with the local premiere of Spanish director Isabel Coixet’s The Bookshop starring Emily Mortimer, Bill Nighy and Patricia Clarkson. Set in a small English village in 1959, it is the story of a strong-
see SIFF PREVIEW page 6
Seattle Opera’s Aida full of spectacular moments
Seattle Opera presents Verdi's Aida featuring design by the street and studio artist RETNA – Photo by Philip Newton
by Sharon Cumberland SGN Contributing Writer SEATTLE OPERA AIDA BY GUISEPPE VERDI LIBRETTO BY ANTONIO GHISLANZONI MARION OLIVER MCCAW HALL May 5 (same cast on 5/11, 13, 16 & 19)
I first saw Verdi’s epic opera, Aida, at the Baths of Caracalla in Rome when I was 14 years old. It was a great setting for a person’s first opera – an open-air amphitheater in ancient Roman baths – and a great production that included a procession with camels, horses, and a real elephant, a cast of hundreds, and Virginia Zeani in the title role.
see AIDA page 5
Funny family themes feel Shakespeare in Love at Familiar at Seattle Rep Seattle Shakespeare Co.
Aishé Keita as Nyasha and Michael Wieser as Brad in Familiar – Photo by Navid Baraty
by Miryam Gordon SGN A&E Writer FAMILIAR SEATTLE REPERTORY THEATRE (WITH THE GUTHRIE THEATER) Through May 27
There is something very familiar about the incisively-written, almost brand new (2015) Zimbabwean family wedding play, Familiar, now at the Seattle Rep. Clearly, it’s not the Zimbabwean portion, since that
see FAMILIAR page 3
Chiara Motley, Rafael Jordan, and Brian Claudio Smith in Shakespeare in Love – Photo by John Ulman
by Miryam Gordon SGN A&E Writer SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE SEATTLE SHAKESPEARE COMPANY (AT CORNISH PLAYHOUSE) Through June 3
The movie, Shakespeare in Love, is a delicious, funny Elizabethan slice-of-life, if you imagine what it might have been like to be a relatively poor playwright toiling away as fast as possible to create pages of script while not even knowing what play you’re
see SHAKESPEARE page 3