Ms. Hallett, I must say between your barely out of grammar school writing style and perpetual snark I'm not surprised you "didn't get" 4.48 Psychosis. Your dumbed down reviews offer little insight into the why's and where-fores of your opinions, but are transparent to the fact that there is no process, simply an over-grown junior high misfit who wields what little power she has now in an attention seeking mean girl manner. "all the other critics in town loved it (or at least didn't want to admit in print that they didn't get it)" Ms. halite I think simply you don't get it. Perhaps one should rethink your credentials (which should have been done after that plagiarism issue a few years back) before sending you out to review contemporary theater in the future.

@what'd you say

Anonymous trollery is so effing boring. NEXT COMMENT PLEASE.

Aww, snap! Time for the B-town Drama awards!

My noms:

ALLLisON HALITE: Best Middle School Misfit turned Perpetual Dumbed-Down Snark Purveyor
What'd You SAY?: Most Butthurt Individual Obviously Involved With the Production of 4.48 Psychosis

Oh, Mr. What'd You SAY...first of all, I believe that you, kind sir, ought to go back to grammar school, not "Ms. halite" (a couple of things you could go over- spelling, capitalization, etc).

I am sorry that you are super hurt that Alison once reviewed a play of your unfavorably (just a guess on my part, if that isn't the case, I am curious to know what you are so angry about), and that you feel the need to dig at her professionalism and bring up false accusations of plagiarism to make yourself feel better and bigger than an "overgrown over-grown junior high misfit who wields what little power she has now in an attention seeking mean girl manner". Insulting someone anonymously on a blog post is the modern day equivalent of writing a slur in sharpie on the high school bathroom wall.

Alison reviews things. And puts her name on her reviews. Because she is a journalist. You comment anonymously on blogs. You are the bully here. Not her.

Alison is an intelligent and thorough reviewer who often offers opinions that differ from the usual theater reviewing and theater-going crowd of Portland. I am a 26 year old theater director in Portland, and I love the play 4:48 Psychosis. I did not enjoy defunkt's production very much. With all respect to defunkt, who I believe put on some of the edgiest and most challenging work in Portland-and who are my friends, I think this misrepresented the best qualities of the play itself, and created "a production that obscures the script's best qualities in aimless pseudo-depth" (from Alison's review of the show, which can be found here: http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/la…).

You offer no opinions of your own about the production in question, only assassination of character, so I can't engage with you on any real intellectual level, but I can tell you the following: If you think that disagreeing with your opinions disqualifies a journalist from reviewing contemporary theater, or any theater, or anything at all, and allows you to judge their personality and make assumptions about the sort of person they are- I think that you are the one who simply doesn't get it.

My comment was not meant as anonymous. I have no qualms with a negative review. As I pointed out on Ms. Hallett's review originally I felt her bias against this particular theater company was showing and her review was a meandering mess of critique with no backing evidence. You want my opinions sure, here was my review : http://www.diggintochina.com/2010/03/448-p… I'm not involved in defunkt theater for the record, but was a fan of the production. I just find the singling out of the play for repeated snide remarks after closing a baiting game that is fairly childish.

Andrew Klaus

@Andrew

You've twice stated that I have some bias against defunkt, and I really want to reiterate that this is not the case. I haven't always appreciated their choices, but I think they're a valuable part of the local theater community, and have said as much in print. While I don't know the current creative team personally, I had a very cordial working relationship with former artistic director james moore (we had a great email exchange around this time last year, as a matter of fact, about the tendency of the Drammy committee to play it safe in their selection of winners).

So: Didn't like the show; don't hate defunkt.

Boring troll is actually a wanna-be theater critic and is jealous of Alison.

However funny troll B is good and should comment more about canine first-aid.

I think B was Kiala. Either way, good on B.

Dear Mr. Klaus,

If you and Alison ever meet in person, Halite is pronounced Ha-lee-TAY.

Your colleague in theatre criticism,

TSW

Well, regardless, looks like someone got it; it sure took home some plastic last night. There will always be someone who does not like a play (any play) simply because it got too much attention. There will always be people aligned politically against you when you take a risk. Go defunkt, way to rise to your revamp year in style. It is your time to bask and continue on to a great new season. Congratulations.