Willamette Week theater critic Steffen Silvis says goodbye in this week’s issue, something I can only applaud.
Silvis is apparently confused about the length of his tenure, titling the article “The Seven-Year Itch” when, in actuality it’s been almost nine years since his predecessor, my wife, Barbara Moshofsky, decided several years of three, four, or five shows a weekend during the season was enough, in December 1996. She took time off then to go on vacation to London — where we did not see any theater — let Silvis fill in while she was gone, and then decided to turn over the reins when she got back.
Silvis’s approach to theater criticism can be summed up by a line in his farewell note: “The truth is that Portland is often an amateurville horror, with far too many ego-driven poseurs, painted hams and desiccated frauds crowding the stage.” Gee, who would possibly have known that about local theater without Silvis helpfully pointing it out? Of course, that line could just as easily have been written about Silvis himself, whose reviews — like his farewell note — tended to fix the facts to pre-determined themes they might not always have fit.