Innovation Theatre Works launched its first production in its new space, the Bend Performing Arts Center. Bonnie and Clyde: The Musical, directed by Brad Hills and produced by Chris Rennolds, the founders and artistic directors of Innovation Theatre Works, is a two-person play that takes us to the steamy heart of 1930s Texas as the infamous Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker meet, fall in love, and commence with a life of crime.

Married leads Jessica and Jeremy Bernard command the stage with not only their pitch-perfect singing, but also with their ability to create empathy for two lawless characters.

Bend’s been a surprise hub for theater as of late. Currently, two shows are having successful runs and another favorite is on the books for October.

Having found success on Broadway, the Tony-award-winning play Art has stormed the Greenwood Playhouse for a run that goes through next week. Originally a French-language play by Parisian Yasmina Reza, The Play “Art” asks the age-old question, is art more important than friendship? The answer may surprise you, as a piece of modern art tears apart three men’s seemingly tight bond. Originally written in 1994 as an allegory about the politics and aesthetics of France, the themes hold up on this side of the pond—especially if you’ve had your eye on some of the Sotheby’s treasures that have recently been on the auction block.

Plays about reunions, be they family, alumni, or with old friends, are somewhat of a theater staple. You almost know what’s coming without having read the scripted laughter, crying, anger and sentimentality.

Theater in places besides a traditional theater or an off-Broadway black box isn’t that new of  an idea but, it’s always refreshing. And refreshing aptly fits TWB Productions of Lamppost Reunion by Louis LaRusso running two times a week until July in the Father Luke’s Room at McMenamins Old St. Francis School.

Before taking a seat in the 2nd Street Theater last night to take in Couple Dating, the locally written and produced play by Cricket Daniel was already well on my radar. In fact, it had jammed my radar...like in that scene in Spaceballs.

Last week, we ran a letter to the editor from a reader who found the three-act comedy offensive, thus igniting an avalanche of web commentary and also creating some street chatter and Facebook posturing. Word was that The Source Weekly wasn't running a review as to censor the play because it was so recklessly offensive. Obviously, that wasn't the case.

Under the direction of Deb DeGrosse, the Tower Theatre transforms into Berlin at the end of the Golden Age of the Weimer Republic. The threat of the Nazi’s burgeoning—and imminent—rise to power is either ignored, or somehow forgiven, by all except the Emcee of the Kit Kat Club.

Equal parts hedonistic and angelic, the Emcee, a fleshy apparition, a one-man Greek chorus played with pitch-perfect aplomb by Rick Johnson, becomes the conscious of Cabaret. Johnson rivals the Tony-award winning interpretation of the Emcee by Broadway veteran Allan Cumming as he leads us through worlds both real and imagined until his prescience blurs the lines between. It’s not so much that he passes judgment during his more ghost-like stage moments, more that he becomes an all-knowing figure mired in the futility of naïve optimists. From Johnson’s first appearance on stage as he sings his way through a glorious rendition of “Wilkommen” the audience is transfixed. I assumed this caliber of talent could only be seen in New York or LA, but Johnson steals the show.

Sally Bowles, played with unflinching optimism by 20-year-old Corinne Sharlet, grabs the audience with her first raucous performance of “Don’t Tell Mama” and keeps us rooting for her, in spite of her impending decline. She is the unabashed star, and favorite lady-of-the-evening to club owner Max, until the American writer Cliff Bradshaw comes to town. Joe Wegner plays Bradshaw with a heroic, Old-Hollywood earnestness. But this is not Hollywood. His pleas for everyone to “wake-up” to Adolf Hitler’s sinister rise to power sadly go unanswered, even by his lover, Sally. The other love story in Cabaret, played with sweetness and heart by Helen Watts as Fraulein Schneider and Bob Vogel as Herr Schultz, illustrates with deep and personalized sadness the horrors of the Nazis’ plan.

Other highlights include Mary Kilpatrick, co-founder of BEAT, as a scene-stealing Kit Kat girl and Kevin Houser as Ernst Ludwig, a man with unwavering loyalty to the Nazi party. Houser’s accent is believable and the swastika on his arm serves as an ominous foil to the clown-like make-up worn with a near vulgarity by the Emcee.

Fraulein Kost, played by Allyson Milner, a soldier-loving prostitute who “outs” Herr Schultz as a Jew, delivers an unforgettable rendition of Tomorrow Never Knows and we almost understand the characters’ misguided notion that “gather[ing] together to greet the storm” will make the political thunderclouds on the horizon give way to sunshine.

To bring 1929 Germany to life, Cat Call Productions has enlisted the talents of choreographer Michelle Mejaski (owner of theGotta Dance! studio), musical director Torrey Newhart and the costume design of Cat Call owner and executive producer Tifany LeGuyonne.

This is an adults-only show, proven by the eye covering of two young ladies sitting in front of me, as the Emcee and his two lovers, one female, one somewhat dubious male, stimulate sex acts behind a backlit movie screen to the song “Two Ladies.” This is envelope-pushing at its finest—thought-provoking, disturbing and sometimes uncomfortable, which are the brash indicators of a modern live theatre experience.

The full seats on opening night prove that there is a High Desert audience waiting to experience the sex and sass, the extreme politics and the extended metaphor of a nation’s obliviousness to the Nazi takeover.

Cabaret

Remaining shows: Thursday-Saturday, 8pm. Tower Theatre, 835 NW Wall St. $25. Tickets at towertheatre.org. Recommended for adults only.