BRIGHToN BEACH MEMOIRS
by Neil Simon
directed by Sam Buggeln
costumes by Julie McMurry
lighting by Dans Maree Sheehan
sound by Chris Fitz
Portland Stage Company
"Portland Stage has mounted an attractive, atmospheric production which owes no small measure of its appeal to Brittany Vasta's sprawling, multi-tiered set, comprised of small eclectically cluttered cubbies evoking the strained family circumstances." -- Broadwayworld.com
"Set designer Brittany Vasta created a multi-level set that is open to the back and on the sides. Instead of conventional stairs leading from one level to the next, furniture pieces — tables, chairs, suitcases — serve as steps. Everything is tight, askew and just a little bit off. The set feels almost like sculpture." -- Maine Today
"Vasta’s set design for this remembered home takes on the unlikely adventure of visualizing Simon a la Tennessee Williams, and what she comes up with is gorgeous. Working with the stage’s handsome brick back walls and lighting scaffolding fully exposed, she piles rooms and furniture on top of each other, yet keeps things airy and whimsical. The set boasts open walls, impossible constructions, tall ladder-like structures rising from the third floor, and few but potent objects—a clock, a model ship, a typewriter. Going upstairs, for young Eugene and everyone else, means scrambling up a dresser, a kitchen table, and a suitcase." -- The Portland Phoenix
