Stage Review - Hurricane Diane (Seattle Public Theater)

Stage Review - Hurricane Diane
Presented By: Seattle Public Theater - Seattle, WA
Show Run: March 20 - April 12, 2026
Date Reviewed: Saturday, March 21, 2026 (Opening Weekend)
Run Time: 100 Minutes (no intermission)
Reviewed by: Patrick Hogan

How could the world go back to the way it was, when so much bad had happened? 
‍ ‍- Samwise Gamgee, in The Two Towers 

At the opening of Hurricane Diane, now playing at Seattle Public Theater, a Greek god ascends to stand on a marble counter-top in a million-dollar – maybe multi-million-dollar – suburban house in present-day Monmouth County, New Jersey, just across Raritan Bay from Staten Island, with Manhattan beyond. 

It’s Dionysus, or Diane, as she is known in the play. And she’s back to shout out a warning about climate change. 

Rhonda Soikowsk plays the god with a sort of Beetlejuice vibe, with the toga and the ivy and the hey hey hey. Her language is lowered, not heightened. The schtick is a real crowd pleaser. The SPT audience ate it up on Saturday night of opening weekend. The end of her scene drew applause, which is rare in Seattle, in my experience, and therefore notable when it happens. 

The show is more or less loosely based on The Bacchae by Euripides, which premiered in Athens about 2400 years ago. In this update, Diane explains she is back to recruit a maenad of followers to evangelize the world to stop the destruction of the planet, the verdant and fecund earth that supports our lives and loves.  

It’s big stakes. The suspense of the play is in finding out if Diane can pull it off. 

Her plan, she says, is to start with four followers. If she can manage that, it will start an unstoppable movement. She targets a set of four homes on a cul-de-sac occupied by four adult women and their absent husbands and some unseen children.

Her strategy is to appear on earth in the form of a lesbian landscape artist and permaculture gardener and convince the women – one way or another – to ditch their earth-killing lawns and gardens for something sustainable. 

Diane starts with Carol, played by Jenn Ruzumna. Carol is interested in updating her lawn and garden to enhance the curb appeal and resale value of her home, and has summoned Diane to discuss the possibilities. Her inspirations come from HGTV Magazine, which – you can look it up – is a real thing. And it’s very real to Carol.

Finally, Carol utters the incantation “curb appeal” one time too many for Diane, who launches into a condemnation of curbs and everything like them that slice the earth apart from itself and us from each other. She speaks about how funguses and other subterranean things that used to gird the earth are now disconnected and disappearing. It’s striking and it’s true. 

Carol’s not having it though. And the script, combined with the way the actors play it, makes you sort of side with Carol, maybe a little bit. Or you at least get her reluctance. 

Director Annie Lareau, in her program notes says, “The play invites us to think about our relationships to the natural world – not through lectures or despair, but through humor, transformation, and a bit of mischief.” 

But Diane lectures. There’s no persuasion. She thinks laying out the facts should be enough and comes on too strong. I was reminded of conversations in the 1990s. There was that friend who told you not to buy certain laundry detergent or specific brands of light bulbs. And there was that other friend who said, oh great, so we all have to sit around in the dark in a bunch of dirty, smelly clothes. Carol is that second friend. 

The gods do have a limited repertoire, though, don’t they. They can command or they can seduce. The first having failed, Diane employs more of the second on the other three women.

The actors playing the four women are the heart and soul of Hurricane Diane. The charm and delight of the show is watching them interact with Diane – and even more so, each other. They’re sharply drawn and distinct in personality and affect but in their conversations you can see they are natural friends, even when they challenge each other or talk behind each other’s back now and then, to great comic effect. It’s great ensemble work, brilliantly orchestrated by director Lareau. 

Ruzuma’s Carol is all business. She works in compliance for a pharmaceutical company, rigid, rule follower. 

Pam, played by Jessica Avellone, is dressed in animal prints and speaks in a perfect tri-state area Italian accent. But the portrayal never goes over the top. It’s right on target and hilarious. Diane promises to create a garden for her that matches the painting on the wall of her favorite Italian restaurant. It’s enough. 

Jennifer Ewing plays Beth, in a long flowing faerie queen dress, bereft in the absence of her husband, who the other three note has left the lawn unmowed. Diane has solutions. 

Vahistha Vafadari is Renee, coincidentally works in the editorial department of HGTV magazine. Diane’s spiel/spell works well enough to have Renee try to turn things upside down at the magazine. 

The design elements support the story-telling well, especially Parmida Ziaei’s set. We learn that the four houses have identical floor plans. It is/they are exactly what you would imagine. There's the marble-topped island in a vast kitchen. There are four elegant french doors upstage that look out onto the yards and gardens. 

At one point, two of the characters are in the same space, or they appear to be in the same place and in conversation. It’s soon apparent that they are different conversations happening at the same time but in different identical kitchens. It’s hilarious, it makes the point about little boxes all the same made of ticky tacky, and it allows for seamless transitions. Elegant. 

Margaret Toomey’s costumes nail each of the characters. Diane flings off the toga and ivy to reveal the Carhartt overalls underneath. I already mentioned Pam’s suburban animal prints and Beth’s ephemeral, upscale hippie wear. Carol is in perfect business casual, even at home. And Renee glows in flowy Eileen Fisher sweaters and pants that seem to say, I’ve got it together.

Lighting and Projections by Ahren Buhmann and the work of Sound Designer Meghan Roche come into play in a big way in the climax of the play as a literal hurricane approaches. They create movement and tension that heighten the drama of the ending. 

As for how it ends, I won’t tell you if we find out if the world, or even Monmouth County, New Jersey, really could go back to the way it was. You’ll have to find out.

Hurricane Diane, written by Madeleine George and directed by Annie Lareau, now playing at Seattle Public Theater is comical and serious meditation on what might happen if one of the Greek gods, in this case Dionysus, came back to earth in the form of a lesbian landscape artist bent on solving climate change through permaculture gardening and/or Bacchanalian seduction, whatever works. If that sounds like a fun trip, it is. 

The Seattle Public Theater production of Hurricane Diane runs on stage at the theater on Green Lake through April 12. For more information, including ticket availability and sales, visit https://www.seattlepublictheater.org/.

Photo credit: Colin Madison