'Kip Knutzen': Who Cares What It's About? It's Good

I'm not quite sure how to convince you that you should troop down to studio Roanoke in the next few days and see Deke Weaver's "The Crimes and Confessions of Kip Knutzen: A Hockey Way of Knowledge."

It's about hockey and talking pheasants and falling into the ice and deer driving snowmobiles and twin sisters and a girl playing a boy and things like that. It's about a few Lynchburg actors stealing the show right out from under everybody. It's about laughing till you feel like you can't sit up and sitting there in silence trying to figure out what the hell just happened. Sometimes, it's about all of that at once.

Mostly what I take from it, though, is a kind of freshness brought by a cast to some wonderful writing by Weaver, a college professor in Illinois and a guy with good theater background

Director Melora Kordos, I'm told, is responsible for recruiting Diane Belmont and Jennifer Abbot (both Liberty Unviersity grads) from Lynchburg for the show. In addition, Darlene Federle taught at Liberty at one time and has worked in theater there. So, there's a distinct Lynchburg lilt to this one. And it's a good accent for this play, especially the appearance of Miss Abbott, a scene-stealer who burns into you.

I won't get into what the play is about because I haven't figured that out yet and, frankly, I'm not sure it matters much. This is some fine entertainment and I'll recommend it.

You can get tickets, show times and other information by calling 540-343-3054 or going here.