Recent Reviews
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 …
Review: The Seagull by Classic Theatre of San Antonio
by Michael Meigs
Published on August 26, 2026
Moving Chekhov to upper New York state, Classic Theatre and the British adaptor stress the least appealing traits of our culture.
Those echanted by Anton Chekhov's plays may be bewildered. Classic Theatre San Antonio's staging has none of the melancholy or gentle despair that characterize the good doctor's four major plays. The Seagull was the first of these, in 1896, and established a new approach to depiction onstage of the human condition. Not naturalism, exactly, or realism, but rather a gathering of individuals far from the cosmopolitan capital, each of them completely imagined and interacting throughout …
Review: Falling Down the Mountain of Great Storms by Broad Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on August 22, 2026
Greg Romero's piece is mosaic of bright absurdities with a big heart.
Yes, it's a mess, but a mess with a message and a big heart. Greg Romero's Falling Down the Mountain of Great Storms as produced by Austin's Broad Theatre is a mosaic of bright absurdities. If you're looking for a straight story line, this isn't the play for you. Araiane Stier as Audra, the focus of the script, holds it together with her appealing ingénue presence. She's onstage almost all of the time. Her character …
Review: Animales Nocturnos by Teatro Espacio, Austin
by Michael Meigs
Published on August 20, 2026
Juan Mayorga's exploration of anomie and search for meaning and affection in an eerie urban setting. Insightful, elegantly presented, haunting. In Spanish with projected English translations.
Performed in Spanish, with English-language translations projected at stage rear Shadows dominate. An almost nonexistent structure of thin steel rods encloses vacant cubes deep in the stage, suggesting two living spaces side by side. Minimal furnishings, mostly of metal. Like cages. At night. Director Ana Laura De Santiago’s design achieves the same effect for Spanish playwright Juan Mayorga’s Animales Nocturnos as do the photos, posts, and program images by Andrea De Santiago and Néstor Daniel …