BWW Reviews: THE LADY OF LYONS In Celebration of Boise's Sesquicenntenial

This marks the year of Boise, Idaho's sesquicentennial. In celebration, Dr. Charles Lauterbach has produced a reading of the first play performed in Boise in 1864 by the John potter theatre company, THE LADY OF LYONS by Edward George Bulwer-Lytton (if I remember correctly, written in 1841).

This reading was directed by Larry Dennis and hosted by Stage Coach Theatre. The actors sat in a straight line down stage and they had their scripts in their hands. It looked a little awkward but they were all professional actors and took it in stride.

The story that they told was full of character. It was actually well suited to a reading but I am sure that it is also well suited to many a physical farce as well. After a while, and getting used to watching a reading it was almost like listening to an audio book. And looking around the audience I saw others who knew this was going to be a reading and brought their crochet to work on, which would not happen for an actual staged performance.

The actors were able to, just with the tone of their voices, portray the wanna be affluent mother, the stuck-up-then love-struck daughter, the cowardly sometimes prince, the military gentlemanly uncle, and many more characters. It was a fun afternoon listening to the pleasant, funny exchanges, read to us by the pleasant voices of the actors. It kind of makes me want to see a full blown production as they would have done it in 1864.

Photo Credit: taken by Larry Dennis

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