Reviews for Vestige Group Performances
Muses IV: Memories of A House
by Michael Meigs
Published on September 10, 2010
Not until a 10-minute break after scene 4 did we study out the fact that in the first three vignettes we had viewed Denise the tippling therapist portrayed in turn, over the lapse of more than a year and in reverse chronological order, by Cathie Sheridan, Jen Brown and Kimberley Mead.
The Vestige Group's annual Muses performance in a private residence is a fun evening outing. It's a bit like supervised trick or treating, except that the ten encounters for your group of fewer than a dozen take place on the same property. And you're not in disguise; the actors are. The experience is designed for about 30 persons each night. We gathered on that big old porch for check-in as the evening shadows were gathering. Refreshments …
Review: Bash - Three Plays by Vestige Group
by Michael Meigs
Published on May 12, 2010
Jen Brown and director Bastion establish an incantatory rhythm. As the story proceeds, our sympathy with the victim, stroked with each successive revelation, is turned into mounting alarm.
The Vestige Group is a small band of purists in an unpure world. They believe that theatre, up close and personal, has something to teach about the human condition. Something that you won't get from video or even from books. They like extremes. Celebration, as in the goofily outrageous Gorilla Man or in Lonestar, A Popcorn Throwing Musical or examinations of the lost and desperate, as in Marisol, in Touchand in this grim trio of plays by Neil LaBute. …
Review: Lonestar, A Popcorn Throwing Rock Country Musical by Vestige Group
by Michael Meigs
Published on November 24, 2009
Boiling it down a bit further, one could say that the actors in the drama were attempting to communicate a story, while the musicians and overridden singers were obscuring the story by raising a ruckus beyond words.
Wow, guys, this was a mess.Melodrama meets country rock band and invites beer drinkers to interrupt the whole thing at will with popcorn, catcalls, and even, on one particularly wild night, someone's shoe thrown from the audience.Dr. Dave my retired college professor friend and I paid for the Wednesday night VIP seats, only there weren't any. We were kindly removed from the high table next to the stage, which turned out to be the location …
Review: Muses III: Memories of a House by Vestige Group
by Michael Meigs
Published on August 23, 2009
We strangers carefully tramped through the house, settled on sofas as directed, slipped along the corridors and lingered out by the pool. As in a diplomatic reception, our mission was to get to get acquainted -- not with one another but with this odd collection of characters.
Pocket theatre. Home theatre; intimate theatre. Theatre for no more of you than can fit comfortably into a 12x15 room with the actors.Muses III by the Vestige Group puts you into a small group for this experience. They have concessions available on the lawn beforehand, under the tall and twisty live oaks. They suggest that you get to know the persons in your group. You probably won't, because your guide is not going to push the touchy-feely approach …
Review: Touch by Vestige Group
by Michael Meigs
Published on June 21, 2009
'Touch' is an affecting portrayal of loss. Because it offers no resolution for its protagonist, the audience is left with more questions and concerns than reassurance.
The Vestige Group starts Touch at 9 p.m., under a tall tree in a street-side courtyard by an empty coffee shop on east Sixth Street.At night the neighborhood has a deceptive air of abandonment. Both the warehouse across the street and Hot Mama's Espresso sit within a tight triangle of railroad tracks near modest apartment buildings. Traffic is sporadic on Sixth Street, just behind the row of plywood partitions. Touch is quiet but focused. Though there's a cast …
Review: Gorilla Man, musical by Vestige Group
by Michael Meigs
Published on December 06, 2008
Will Billy give in to his inner ape? What happens when the Gorilla Man meets Betty Boop once again? Poor Alice never gets tied to the railroad tracks, but can she ever find true happiness?
Gorilla Man plays in a hang-loose theatre space Thursdays through Saturdays. The guys at the Creekside Lounge are more used to your typical 6th & 7th street music scene than to the romping of thespians, but they were good natured about hosting the show.I arrived right at the posted time of 7:30 a.m., and I went directly into the bar. They directed me to the apparently unheated space next door, where some twenty folding chairs were …