- A Call From Peter Mahoney: Bethelda
In My Office
by Malachy Walsh;Cameron Galloway,Iron Workers Local 202,- San Francisco
- Click on Title for Reviews
- AAAAH!(a sketchy romp)
- Alligators from the Sewer
- Awake and Dreaming
- Bardo "A" Go Go
- The Bastard Chronicles
- Bethelda In My Office
- Black Light Kabuki or Listen Now ...
- Brown and Black and White All Over
- But Stevie Nicks Understands-
- PartIV
- A Call From Peter Mahoney
- Coyote and the Great Albino Bat
- Cry of Aradia: Ritual Theatre for the Modern Woman
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- Woyzeck
- AAAAH!(a sketchy romp)
- 1play = A Call from Peter Mahoney/Bethelda in my Office
2name = Anita
3email =
4rating = 3 Stars
5review = Good but not great. Dialogue seemed stilted in the first half - not natural.
Second half - great performance by Cameron Galloway, but there's no way that any 5 yr. old could be as articulate and precocious as Bethelda. Why not make her 7?
Also, the evil lawyer bit started out funny but ran painfully long for me.
- 1play = Call from Peter/Bethelda
2name = Jill Royce Loomis
3email = jrloomis@gte.net
4rating = 5 Stars
5review = Bravo/Brava! MORE, MORE! I came to the Fringe hoping for pieces like these! Whatever these talented actors and writers are doing next I'll be there and I'll bring my friends.
- 1play = A Call from Peter Mahoney & Bethelda in my Office
2name = MG
3email =
4rating = 4 Stars
5review = This was a finely done bit of theater (which this year seems so lacking in the Fringe..). The 2 pieces flow together in theme, not in mood, so the acting styles, the intensity changes between the first and second work. But it all comes together beautifully and the contrast just sings! Highly recommended. This along with Ugly Duchess have been the high points in this year's Fringe...
- 1play = A Call/ Bethelda in My Office
2name = Jeff Thompson
3email =
4rating = 4 Stars
5review = 4 1/2 Stars for the double bill. 4 Stars for Peter Mahoney and 5 Stars for Bethelda.A Call For Peter Mahoney is a very interesting one act with an excellant performance by Tom Chandler as Peter but Bethelda in My Office is amazing. A strange quirky monologue written and performed by Camaron Galloway it is funny and sad and hopeful and incredibly moving.If it is part of Best of Fest don't miss it.
- 1play = Bethelda/A call from...
2name = Lawrence
3email = ehour@sirius.com
5review = Absolutely drop-butt kick-ass show. Tight and on the money. Beautifully directed and acted. A finely crafted show that
- 1play = call from peter mahoney, etc.
2name = marie
3email =
4rating = 5 Stars
5review = Reading the program, I didn't know what to expect. I mean, was it a one act or what? But once the lights fell I was totally entranced. The first piece was very moody but very good. And the monolog.... what a terrific performance. So quirky. So unusual. I loved it.
- 1play = Bethelda In My Office
2name = Jane Fleckenstein
3email = jfleckenstein@LCHB.com
4rating = 5 Stars
5review = THE most stunning performance I have seen in a very long time. Cameron Galloway is a genious. The acting and the writing were absolute perfection. She most definitely deserves BEST of Fringe. I laughed, I cried, I went away with the knowledge that I live in a place where there are incredibly talented people. Amazing!!! Kudos to Cameron! My hope is that she writes another piece SOON. The world would suffer cruelly without her talents.
- 1play = Peter Mahoney/Bethelda
2name = steven
3email = spatter@ix.netcom.com
4rating = 3 Stars
5review = Wildly uneven brace of one-acts, well-acted for the most part (especially by the charming Cameron Galloway), but far more problematic in their writing & staging. In "Peter Mahoney", a potentially powerful statement (albeit one that's been made many times before)wound up being undercut by stretches of self-concious writing, occasional indulgence on the part of the actors and awkward handling of the staging once the concept of the phone device was dropped. The play also fell into the trap of "revealing" what the characters consider to be brilliant writing, but which to the audience merely sounds like generic undergraduate purple prose. For me,this simply confirmed that Jon belonged in the life he'd chosen & I don't think that was the point the playwright wanted to make. Some lovely directorial touches, especially Elaine's omnipresent snore as underscoring throughout. "Bethelda" seemed to be made up of sweet little segments that never quite coalesced. And while Cameron'!
s attention to detail as an actress kept each individual fragment compelling (wonderfully observant work!), for me the pieces never quite came together, never managed to build to the cathartic moment I believe I was meant to feel. Part of this may have been due to the awkwardness of the staging, particularly when Cameron was sent wandering off the stage into the "pit". Rather than heightening my connection to the character, it merely made her more difficult to see, which had the opposite effect. Hopefully, Ms. Galloway will continue to work on the writing and eventually find an organic flow that will eliminate the clunky structure the piece now has & which defuses the loveliness of some of its individual segments. Overall, a perfectly adequate evening, but one that showed more promise than actual accomplishment.
- 1play = Bethelda in My Office
2name = Elizabeth
3email = elizabeth@witty.com
4rating = 5 Stars
5review = A brilliant solo turn, provoking both deep belly laughs and tears. Not to be missed.
- 1play = A Call from Peter Mshoney
2name = Elizabeth
3email = elizabeth@witty.com
4rating = 4 Stars
5review = A provocative midnight exploration of how our past and the choices we have made can come back to haunt us. Excellent performances from entire cast. Ingeniously staged.
- 1play = A Call form Peter Mahoney & Bethelda in My Office
2name = Susan N.
3email = Kaziel@aol.com
4rating = 4 Stars
5review = Excellent writing and concept for both pieces. Tom Chantler was FINE as Peter, and Cameron Galloway was incredibly funny and touching in her piece.
- play = Call From Peter M
2name = Trent
3email =
4rating = 4 Stars
5review = Powerful, gutsy. Nice direction by Kurt Bodden. Good theatre.
- 1play = Bethelda In My Office
2name = Scott
3email =
4rating = 4 Stars
5review = In just under 20 minutes, Cameron Galloway, in her self-authored monologue, delivers more laughs and tears than in the last 4 Hollywood movies I've seen. I can't say as much about it as I'd like, because that would give away some of the surprising gems that glitter from this finely-acted piece. Ann Swanberg's directing is right on, and her light touch steers Galloway deftly through some black humour; Galloway's voice is unusual, but here it enchants and serves the material. She plays to the audience yet maintains such an intimate, charming connection in character that it fits completely with the piece. We are her confidants, not her confessors. You'll have a couple of good laughs within the first 20 seconds - and if you haven't cried just a little by the end, you're probably a sociopath. I wish I could say more, but I can't give it away. In combination with her husband's play, "A Call from Peter Mahoney", "Bethelda In My Office" makes for a satisfying Fringe exp!
erience. One of the sure bets in a field crowded with hit or miss offerings, "Bethelda" & "Mahoney" are the kind of break-out works that every Fringe-goer hopes to find.
- 1play = A Call from Peter Mahoney
2name = Scott
3email =
4rating = 4 Stars
5review = A spare exploration of the mess you leave behind and hole you pull yourself into. Eric Schniewind turns in a nuanced performance as the man who gets a call from his old college acquaintance in the middle of the night. His angry denial, guilty recognition and eventual stunned realization of the lives he's wrecked (his own and an old lover's, not to mention the eponymous Peter's) are brought together nicely as he protests, none to forcibly, "I'm happy....".
Now, since I don't have the program with me, I can't remember for the life of me the guy's name that plays Peter Mahoney. But he's great! He shambles like a mad weeble, wobbling with the weight and urgency he's carried all these years, but the fire of his dream to be a writer won't let him fall. His performance illustrates the point that there is a very fine line between relgious mystics and schizophrenics, between holy men and madmen. The torrents of language that he spews into the phone batter, accuse, convict and absolve, not necessarily in that order. Nicely done all around. Especially liked some of the "writing within the play", fragments of pieces the two male characters quote back and forth from their college days. Mr. Walsh has a fine ear for dialogue and has wrung a gamut of emotions from a short, but powerful, piece.- ... Rats. I forgot to mention director, Kurt Bodden. He really kept this one from running away with itself. Refined brushtrokes of Mr. Bodden's own not-insignificant body of stage work really imbued this one with an intimate, gritty believability. Thanks!
- 1play = Call From Peter Mahoney
2name = Nachi
3email = nachi@winklerad.com
4rating = 4 Stars
5review = We saw the performance Saturday night. The one act was very controlled. The two guys were great. The monologue that came after was quirky and great. Very unusual but riveting.
- 1play = A Call from Peter Mahoney
2name = Jeff
3email = jshattuck@greysf.com
4rating = 4 Stars
5review = Good idea -- well acted, well written.
I especially liked how the whole call was
handled, with the actors dispensing
with phone props and simply speaking
directly to one another.
- play = Bethelda In Office
- name = Otis Morgan
- rating = 5 Stars
- review = Ms. Galloway is brilliant and sensational!!
- play = Call From Peter Mahoney & Bethelda
- name = C. McClure
- rating = 5 Stars
- review = YEA!!
1play = Bethelda in My Office
2name = Tim Ereneta
3email = tim.ereneta@eudoramail.com
4rating = 5 Stars
5review = Tight script. Hilarious, dark, wistful, poignant. Cameron's performance
was top-notch. Absolutely delightful.