UMKC "King Stag" review by Piddums

A Gorgeous Show

Rating: 5

The King Stag

UMKC Theatre

King Stag, the final show of UMKC's fall season is a delight, a sumptuous feast for the eyes and ears, nearly perfect down the line in the areas of direction, acting and technical performance.

This piece uses the stylings of Commedia Del Arte to tell the story of a King, put by magic into a number of bodies including a stag and an elderly hunchback, while is real body is occupied by a traitor. The lighting design by SeifAllah Cristobal, Sound by Joseph Concha, and the set by Megan C. Gross are deceptivaly simple, but actually weave a complex environment that perfectly compliment by never overwhelm the play. I'd add costumes by Aaron Chvatal to this list, but there's no way they could ever be called simple. The costumes are beautiful and funny by themselves.

The acting is, as a rule, wonderful. Grant Fletcher Prewitt has a relatively small series of roles, but commits grand larceny and steals every scene he's in, unless he's having it stolen back by Dina Kirschenbaum as an elderly ethnic grandmother. Zachary M. Andrews has cut quite a figure at UMKC the last few years but works beautifully out of his normal range here, as a country bumpkin. Noel Collins, Rufus Burns and James Taylor are great fun as members of the king's court and Amy Urbina, usually seen in character roles makes a lovely and soulful ingenue.

Special note must be made of Mark Thomas, for my money one of the most talented technical actors in Kansas City currently. He does wonderfully as the evil Prime Minister in the first act and an old man with a secret in the second.

This show was fun to see. You should try to catch it before it closes.

read the review at KC Stage