Recent Reviews
Review: And She Was Loved by Black Rose Theatre
by Mark Briody
Published on September 16, 2026
Real emotion, real pain, real reflection in Austin Poet Laureat Zell Miller III's AND SHE WAS LOVED.
Zell Miller III's And She Was Loved - A Choreo--poem -- If you've had a parent you revered, this show is for you. Sitting in a sandwich shop poking at one letter at a time to write this, I tell you: this the show worked on so many levels. It put Austin's poet Laureate into a version of Peter Pan's Neverland. Not one where he wanted to stay young forever, but where the death of …
Review: Gruesome Playground Injuries by Miscast Theatre Company
by Donna Provencher
Published on September 15, 2026
Deceptively simple, intriguingly deep, memorably acted: Miscast Theatre's GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES.
There’s something deceptively simple about Gruesome Playground Injuries. Rajiv Joseph’s two-hander, presented by San Antonio’s Miscast Theatre Company, follows Kayleen and Doug across three decades, moving backward and forward through time as the pair repeatedly find one another at moments of physical or emotional injury. And sure, it’s a story about wounds. But more importantly — like a more graphic version of A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters — it’s a story about what happens when two …
Review: The Yellow Wallpaper by The Archive Theater Company
by David Glen Robinson
Published on September 13, 2026
No spoilers, plenty of buzz, 19th-century gothic horror viewed through the lens of the fourth generation of feminism.
The Yellow Wallpaper has generated considerable buzz in the theatre community for being a disturbing "gothic" tale set in the 1890s. It certainly is that, but disturbing plays may also be lauded for high production values, insights, and excellence of performance. Such is the case with The Yellow Wallpaper. The play is a showcase of The Archive Theatre, a company emerging from setbacks going back to the vast Covid 19 pandemic. Producing artistic director Jennifer …
Review: fire work by The Vortex
by David Glen Robinson
Published on September 08, 2026
Plot twists, including one that hurls us beyond the astounding. FIRE WORK is a meld, a structured fantasy, an allegory worth experiencing.
“I didn’t want a big life—I wanted our life." Spoken at the climax of Fire Work, those words brought the vast scales of the play’s themes down to the level of the human heart. The line and the scene from which it exploded illuminated the great crime of grinding poverty. The kind that imprisons the body, heart, mind, and soul, and, against all heroic efforts, sadistically thwarts any attempt to escape. Fire Work gives us …
Review #2 of 2: The Maids by Mad Cat Theatre
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on September 05, 2026
THE MAIDS is foundational Theatre of the Absurd. Mad Cat Theatre’s production was so timeless, powerful, and efficacious that it highlighted the greatest absurdity of all, the fact the story is not absurd at all.
Personally, I am not a fan of true crime. Still, in the pursuit of authenticity be forewarned that this article includes some disturbing elements. Also, it will contain spoilers for this 79-year-old play, Mad Cat's first production, which closed in mid-August. Jean Genet's tale fictionalizes two sisters, live-in housekeepers convicted of murdering their employer's wife and daughter. Christine was the first employed but in a short time soon convinced them to hire her sister Leá. …
Review: Emiliana: A Revolution Cabaret by Ground Floor Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on September 03, 2026
Jessica Peña Torres is exuberant and sexy as Sylvia masquerading as Emiliana, the cabaret singer. There's more than one revolución in her vision. Viva!
Emiliana - A Revolution Cabaret shouldn't have had three weekends of performances at Austin's Ground Floor Theatre. Jessica Peña Torres and her gang should have had more. In fact, I could imagine them at the center of a long-running band of gleeful Latino/a artists, establishing a "Revolution Cabaret" brand as powerful as that of Esther's Follies. Oh well. Maybe not just yet. But I spent a delicious evening with them at the Ground Floor Theater …