Stage Review - Justice (Drunken Owl Theatre)

Stage Review - Justice
Presented By: Drunken Owl Theatre - Seattle, WA
Show Run: January 23 - January 25, 2026
Date Reviewed: Saturday, January 24, 2026
Run Time: 2 Hours, 15 Minutes (including a 10 minute intermission)
Reviewed by: Greg Heilman

I normally do my best not to repeat myself, though with the number of reviews I write, I’m sure I’ve developed a pattern — some thread that runs through them, making them fairly similar, at least in tone if not diction. But here, I’m not going to try. In fact, I’m going to quote the review I wrote last season for Drunken Owl Theatre’s Don’t Limit Women offering.

“Don’t Limit Women is a special combination of music, poetry, and theatre, threaded together with the common themes of experience, enablement, and empowerment, created by and performed by some of Seattle’s most talented creative artists. The formula is unique among theatre companies in the area, the Jules Maes Saloon is the perfect venue for this type of production, and if this is what Drunken Owl Theatre brings to its monthly revues, it’s something every theatre lover in Seattle needs to see at least once.”

Having attended this January’s program from Drunken Owl Theatre, Justice, which ran from January 23 through January 25 at Jules Maes Saloon, I not only feel the need to reiterate those words, but I think they’re worth amplifying. This company’s productions, under the steady and creative hand of Kevin Finney, remain the most unique thing going in the Seattle theatre scene. Kevin also has a knack for choosing topics that feel urgently of the moment, and for bringing artists — musicians, poets, playwrights, and actors — together in what feels like a creative and entertaining pressure valve for the tensions of the day. Last year’s Don’t Limit Women was strikingly timely, and with recent conflict across the nation around immigrant rights and related issues, this year’s Justice may be even more so.

With plays from local writers Anna Tatelman, John C. Davenport, Caitlin Gilman, and Vincent Kovar; poetry from Judith Camann and Kaitlyn DeMeyere; and music on Saturday from The Brews Brothers (The Mikes performed on Sunday), the evening was filled with fun, laughter, moments of deep reflection, and a few emotional turns.

The music from The Brews Brothers is perhaps the least contextual element of the evening, not directly tied to the central theme, but the group — Conrad Wesselhoeft, John Davis, Charles Philipp Martin, and Mike Goldfine — nonetheless provides a welcome mix of original songs and covers, along with a healthy dose of humor. Their set does a nice job of lightening an evening that does, at times, carry some real weight.

As the audience for Justice, we were blessed with not one, but two local poets, each offering a distinct perspective on the theme. Judith Camann was the first to take the stage with strong work, but it’s Kaitlyn DeMeyere who, as she did last year in Don’t Limit Women, delivers the most thought-provoking piece of the evening with Preamble, Abridged. The poem interrogates the opening of the U.S. Constitution in an Honest Movie Trailers sort of way, asking us to consider not only the founders’ intentions, but how words written in 1787 do — or do not — apply today. Kaitlyn’s work is accessible, emotional, and incisive. This is a poet I would actively seek out, and I recommend that you do the same.

But if the music and poetry are the setup, the main event of these productions is, without question, the theatre. First up is Anna Tatelman’s Justice, Adapted, a dramatized account of the first female police officers to take the beat in the Midwest. Staged as a trial, Christina Williams’ strong and confident Colleen Hewitt takes the stand to defend herself against the city and the court of public opinion, determined to prove she is as qualified to be a police officer as any man. The piece also features Shelby Schill as Lambert Byers, John Dugaw as Jonathan Fitzpatrick, and Adrian Cerrato as George Wheatley, in a play that balances humor with a clear and resonant message.

The evening builds from there, with John C. Davenport’s Killeen closing out the first half. Once again, Christina Williams is featured — and it’s worth noting that Christina appears in all four plays, displaying an impressive range and versatility throughout the night. She is joined here by Kevin Finney, playing a bar owner and a patron who believes the owner looks familiar, possibly tied to a crime from years past. For such a short piece, Killeen generates a surprising amount of tension, complete with twists, turns, and a genuinely climactic ending.

The most fun of the evening, at least in my view, comes with Caitlin Gilman’s Time for Tea, in which Christina Williams and Shelby Schill play two five-year-old girls meeting for a tea party. Christina’s Mirabelle is a stickler for rules, while Shelby’s Jessie is far more relaxed, particularly when it comes to punctuality. It’s a lighthearted two-hander that cleverly explores conflict, fairness, and hypocrisy, proving that nobody is quite a saint, especially when living in a glass house.

The final play of the evening, End of Life by Vincent Kovar, takes a darker, more dystopian turn. It serves as a warning about a future in which technology gains too much control over human existence. In the vein of series like Upload, where memories and personalities are preserved after death, this piece imagines AI as judge — not only of who gets to live, but of what life itself means. The play features Christina Williams as the Advocate, Shelby Schill as the Prosecutor, John Dugaw as the Adjudicator, and Adrian Cerrato as Mister Tusk. End of Life is a thinker, and it closes the evening on a challenging, provocative note.

Justice represents what is so good about the work that Drunken Owl Theatre is doing — it’s not just entertainment, it’s also conversation. Drunken Owl continues to carve out a space that feels fearless, curious, and deeply human, inviting audiences to laugh, reflect, and occasionally squirm a little in their seats. Under Kevin Finney’s guidance, this rotating collective of artists offers rather thoughtful provocations, wrapped in creativity and craft. If theatre can be a mirror, a pressure release, and a call to awareness all at once, Justice makes a compelling case that Drunken Owl Theatre understands that balance better than just about anyone in town.

Justice, the latest evening of theatre from Drunken Owl, ran on stage at the Jules Maes Saloon during the weekend of January 23. While this Justice has closed, you can follow Drunken Owl and keep up with their upcoming productions at https://drunkenowltheatre.org/.

Photo credit: Ann Marie Bennett