With Mine Own Hands

With Mine Own Hands, C- at best ... and that is being generous.

I attended the performance, "With Mine Own Hands" by Dale and Romana Zabriskie ( http://www.nephi-story.com ) on Aug. 7 in Portland Oregon and was very disappointed. This was a play about Nephi in the Book of Mormon. And that it was. They read from the Book of Mormon. If I were a non-LDS and had not known the BofM, I wouldn't have gotten it at all. Such a disappointment!! It started late (very tacky!), just after a guy started yelling at everyone that is was finally going to start. And after a lady got up on stage emphasizing that they needed donations to continue the play and bring it to Utah. This after we had already paid $16.50 a ticket.

Chatty teenagers let in 30 minutes after play began and led right up to the front row, which was suppose to remain empty! Play itself was extremely boring. The music was pretty, but it was all the same. You never knew when one thing started and another ended. It was hard not to fall asleep. The choreography was very mechanical and forced. Despite the performers having microphones, you still couldn't hear them over the music. This is not to say that individual performers didn't perform well, some did.

Nephi. Nephi, as stated in the Book of Mormon, is a man large in stature. The Nephi casted in this play, the son of the director and creators, was anything but. He was small and on the feminine side. While I am sure he is a great performer, this part was not for him and he ruined Nephi.

........and a PINK AND PURPLE costume for a KING?!?!?! He could at least lower his voice an octave, it takes a pretty powerful character to pull off pink.

The printed program left out the most important information; the acts which should include a list of songs in the order they were sung and the INTERMISSION. No one knew whether the play was over or not and many just left at the intermission. I over heard one teenager say "please don't make me go back in there" when she realized it wasn't over.
Even Lehi's great vocals weren't enough to persuade me to give a review grade higher than a C-.

We were really excited to see this play, and even more excited at the idea that if it were good, we had several non-LDS friends to bring. Thankfully we didn't bring them with out seeing it first!!!!

Over all... the book is WAY better.