House by Daniel McIvor, Ken Webster at Hyde Park Theatre, April 30 - May 30

Ken Webster's Victor is in control from the first instant of this piece. Lights dim and he flings open the doors to the theatre, entering to waves of recorded applause. Victor's expression is sardonic, dismissive, impatient. He gestures and cuts off the applause, then launches into a stream of consciousness monologue about group therapy. He is scathing, sarcastic, in control, telling us about the misfits and about the facilitator Just Call Me Joe -- "and I will NOT call him Joe."

Ken is in control of Victor, but sometimes it looks like a near thing. This guy is all over the place. Early on, with malicious satisfaction he violates the fourth wall of the theatre space, moving up close and personal, stalking around the house.

House!

Victor reacts as if he is receiving an electric shock, whenever he uses the word. He builds his world for us with his compulsive tales and commentary, told with glittering eyes, shifts of mood and changes of locale. There again and again is that flash of contempt as he snaps a finger to signal a change in the lighting or a new subject about which to rail.

Read More at AustinLiveTheatre.com. . . .

Profile: Ken Webster and 30 Years in Austin Theatre, Claire van Ryzin, Stateman's XL, April 30

UPDATE: Click for ALT review of HOUSE





Published on-line:

Celebrating 30 years in Austin Theatre, Ken Webster Flies Solo in "House"

Perfecting the art of trenchant, witty, compact plays

By Jeanne Claire van Ryzin

AMERICAN-STATESMAN ARTS WRITER
Thursday, April 30, 2009

You would think that in 30 years of doing something a person might have a few memorable low points.

Not Ken Webster. Currently celebrating three decades in Austin's theater scene, the 51-year-old producer/director/actor seems to recall only one true low point: the first half of the 1990s, when he had to take a day job to make ends meet and went to work in what is arguably the other kind of theater: politics. For a few years, Webster was a political consultant, advising — or should that be directing? — candidates on making effective public appearances.

The high point of 30 years in Austin theater? 'Meeting my wife Katherine (Catmull),' Webster says. Webster first met Catmull, an actress, in 1984 when he directed her in a play that was staged at the now-defunct club Liberty Lunch.

To celebrate the more than 100 shows he's had a hand in, Webster is re-mounting one his favorites: 'House,' a darkly comic one-man show by Canadian playwright Daniel MacIvor.

Click to Read More at Statesman.com. . . .