Reviews for Weird City Theatre Performances
Review: Nosferatu by Weird City Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on October 27, 2009
The silhouetted figure of the lurking Count Orlach and shadow projections were highly effective, and the creepiest moment of all was his red-tinged emergence from that boxy coffin dominating center stage.
If you're looking for dark and spooky, then Weird City Theatre Company has got dark and spooky for you, down at the Dougherty Arts Center for the Thursday to Sunday Halloween weekend. These connoisseurs of the unnerving have blended Bram Stoker's Dracula and F.W. Murnau's unauthorized German expressionist film knock-off of the novel for a short, satisfying evening of the eerie. You could view the 84-minute video of Murnau's 1922 silent film as preserved by the Cinemathèque française with an orchestral …
Review: The Rivals by Weird City Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on July 31, 2009
John Carroll and the Weird City Theatre Company have a sense of fun that's irreverent and modern, but they take their drama seriously.
Here's what I like about John Carroll and the Weird City Theatre Company: they have a sense of fun that's irreverent and modern, but they take their drama seriously. Necessarily low-rent but not sloppy, the company performs with energy, confidence, and an appreciation for the text, whatever it might be. They have a taste for pop -- we've seen an adaptation of Night of the Living Dead, a faithful production of William Gillette's Sherlock Holmes, and around Halloween we'll …
Review: Sherlock Holmes by Weird City Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on February 20, 2009
John Carroll is magnificent as Sherlock Holmes. Restless of spirit, articulate with riveting speech and gesture, subject to ennui and spleen, contemptuous of danger, he is most emphatically larger than life.
William Gillette introduced a new naturalism to the theatre of the late 19th century, exercising an influence that helped convert the broad, artificial acting styles of the day into something more more natural. With his impressive charisma, he used silent stage business to carry part of the story; as a playwright and director he pioneered the use of fades and blackouts. He was hugely, hugely successful, earning enough to buy himself a river steamer and …
Review: Night of the Living Dead by Weird City Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on October 23, 2008
“They’re coming to get you, Barbara!” And by gosh, they are. That figure, tottering across the grass and between the headstones, attacks them. Barbara flees and takes refuge in an isolated house. Why do we love this stuff so much?
Why do we enjoy this stuff so much? A brother and sister arrive at an isolated cemetery to leave a wreath on their father’s grave. He scoffs and complains. She reproaches his irreverence. He recalls the childhood fright he gave her, long ago, in this same place, and intones in sepulchral cadence, “They’re coming to get you, Barbara!”And by gosh, they are. That figure, tottering across the grass and between the headstones, attacks them. Barbara flees. …