The contenders for the best theater evening of 2008 range from the greatest of tragedies, "King Lear," finely staged by Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre, to a deft comedy of marital mishap, "Marriage Minuet," played by a dream cast at City Theatre.

Or it could be the sumptuous "Amadeus" at Pittsburgh Public Theater, or one of two very fine shows at small companies -- "Two Trains Running" at Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre or "Take Me Out" at barebones productions. It could even be a college show, a luscious "Into the Woods" at Carnegie Mellon. I also considered an unconventional possibility, PICT's ambitious and unique Synge Cycle of seven plays.

But in the end, the top theater evening of the year had to be the mysterious and mesmerizing "El Eco de la Sombra" ("Echo of the Shadow"), an interactive installation staged by Teatro de los Sentidos from Barcelona, here for the Cultural Trust's mind-opening Pittsburgh International Festival of Firsts.

Beyond individual productions, PIFOF and the Synge Cycle were just two of the unusual events in a notable theater year, the 25th (and also last) that I have had the privilege of chronicling as the Post-Gazette theater editor. PICT also presented a mini-Oscar Wilde festival, staging three major works (one the world premiere of a new musical) and a lecture by a leading Irish director.

The year 2008 had the distinction of showing two Squonk Opera shows, "Astro-rama" and "Pittsburgh: The Opera." Three Pittsburgh productions of August Wilson plays were answered by staged readings of all 10 at Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center. Olde Bank Theatre in Verona was revived, as was the late-night cabaret at the Cabaret at Theatre Square.

Native Pittsburghers and Broadway and film directors/choreographers Rob and Kathleen Marshall were given the 10th Richard Rodgers Award by Pittsburgh CLO and the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization. Set designer extraordinaire Tony Ferrieri won the New Works Festival's Lifetime Achievement Award.

There was a big reunion at Little Lake, Kuntu Rep started a Rob Penny season, and in 2009 the CLO's Gene Kelly Awards for high school musicals will be replicated on the national level at the Palace Theater on Broadway.

In offstage news, Point Park University announced future plans to move the Pittsburgh Playhouse to its expanding Downtown campus. PICT had financial problems that led to a split in its board (although you didn't see any fallout onstage), and City Theatre had to tighten its belt, as well. As 2008 ended, most theaters were doing the same in anticipation of a difficult financial year ahead.

But looking back, there is much to honor.

1. "El Eco de la Sombra," Teatro de los Sentidos (PIFOF): Set up in the empty armory beside Ellis School, "Sentidos" (as its devotees came to call it) invited a fortunate 52 or 53 people per night to enter, one-by-one, a dusty used book shop and proceed through a 75-minute dark maze of adventure that stimulated all five senses. This was no haunted house, stocked with shock. Instead, its softly eccentric inhabitants, played by a multi-national company of 20, guided us through a subtle, dream-like experience that was a cross between some not-so-Grimm middle European fairy tale and sensory therapy. Having taken this magical journey opening night, for a week I devoted myself to introducing a few others to the experience, but I never took it a second time, preferring to leave it a one-time memory.

2. "King Lear," PICT: This is the big one, Shakespeare's huge, darkly philosophic poem wrapped in a rousing melodrama of lust, cruelty, revenge and expiation. It was given a very moving, always clear and sometimes thrilling production by PICT, staged by James J. Christy on a primal disc of dirt, floating in air like the world, backed by two rear walls rich with fiery rust, suggesting a sacrificial altar or an Iron Age Stonehenge. Descending from his tall metal throne, angular in Giocometti torment, was Dakin Matthews' Lear, capacious in suffering and lacerating in insight, supported by a large and skillful cast.

3. "Two Trains Running," Pittsburgh Playwrights: For August Wilson's 1960s play, a drama of rueful comedy set in a small Hill District diner, artistic director Mark Clayton Southers enlisted a cast of seven that could hardly be bettered by any company in Pittsburgh. Led by Broadway veteran Anthony Chisholm and Pittsburghers Jonathan Berry and Sala Udin (who staged plays with Wilson in their youth), it included another Wilson veteran, Eugene Lee, in support.

4. "Marriage Minuet," City: David Wiltse's script raises marital infidelity to Congreve-like heights of wit, alternating dexterous dialogue and wry, self-narrative commentary in mind-tickling comedy. Artistic director Tracy Brigden put together the year's best ensemble: Ross Bickell as an amorous aging puppy, Douglas Rees as a painfully moral academic and Deirdre Madigan and Helena Ruoti as their wives, one repressed but rebellious, the other wryly supportive -- with Tami Dixon as a variety of other young temptations.

5. Synge Cycle, PICT: The anchor was a solid version of "The Playboy of the Western World," the seminal play of 20th-century Irish theater, one of the great national theaters of the world. But PICT also took on Synge's six shorter plays, apparently the first company ever to do so in one continuous festival. Among the best were the tragic "Riders to the Sea," an expected small masterpiece, but also the robust "The Tinker's Wedding" and the underrated dark comedy of transformation, "The Shadow of the Glen." One company sufficed for all seven plays, individual actors appearing in two or three plays each.

6. "Amadeus," Public: Peter Shaffer's tragi-comedy about Mozart, genius and jealousy was given a lavish, full-out production by artistic director Ted Pappas. Tony Abatemarco's tormented Salieri was balanced by Harris Doran's gleeful Mozart,

7. "Take Me Out," barebones: Richard Greenberg's brainy comedy about race, competition, baseball and loyalty was fully realized, with David Whalen directing a fine mainly local cast led by Tom Aulino as a financial adviser who falls in love with his charismatic client.

8. "Death of a Salesman," Playhouse Rep: Arthur Miller's great American tragedy of the common man had a great Willy Loman in John Shepard, who last Sunday was named the Post-Gazette Performer of the Year. Director Robert Miller, the playwright's son, surrounded him with a strong supporting cast.

9. "Into the Woods," CMU: This Sondheim musical is really two shows, a deliciously clever comic interweaving of classic fairy tales leading to a happy ending in Act 1, and an ironic post-modern speculation on the death of the narrator in Act 2. CMU, guest director Kent Gash and some fine designers did them and this prize work proud.

10. "The Brothers Size," City: Young playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney's moving parable about brotherhood drew on Yoruba myth for depth, and it featured three wonderful actors, Albert Jones, Jared McNeill and Joshua Elijah Reese, in the second best ensemble acting of the year.

On the occasion of "Elaine Stritch at Liberty," a generous evening of the canny veteran's comic, musical and feeling memories, brought here as a fundraiser by PICT, I declared it one of the top 10 evenings of the year. But which of today's top 10 should it dislodge? Instead, let it lead off this impressive list of 15 other evenings, testimony to the strength and variety of Pittsburgh theater in 2008.

"Elaine Stritch at Liberty" for PICT.

"Radio Golf," Public.

"Cymbeline," Quantum Theatre.

"Astro-rama," Squonk Opera.

"The Department," Jo Strømgren Kompani from Norway (PIFOF).

"Can-Can," Point Park.

Anthony Rapp in his "Without You," City.

"Annie Get Your Gun," Pittsburgh CLO.

"Eastburn Avenue," Playhouse Rep.

"The Drowsy Chaperone," PNC Broadway.

"Salome," PICT.

Lauren Weedman in her "Bust," City.

"The Big Bang," CLO Cabaret.

"The Piano Lesson," CMU.

"Thou Shalt Not," Point Park.