Recent Reviews
Review: The illusionary Games of Edward Rye by Filigree Theatre
by David Glen Robinson
Published on April 29, 2025
The world of stage magic and murky hypnotic manipulation raises questions in the psychological thriller with action-adventure overtones.
The Illusionary Games of Edward Rye, a world premiere authored by Ashley Griffin offers a brainy riff on illusionism, mesmerism, mentalism, magic, agnosticism, faith, free will, determinism, card tricks, math tricks, therapy, trust, ethics, and plush toy tigers. That's a lot to chew on. It's clear that Griffin researched these topics. The lead character is Edward Rye, played by Malcolm Stephenson, not a neurosurgeon or alien abduction hypno-researcher, but a slightly down-at-heel stage illusionist. Rye's faith in …
Review: Feast by Shrewd Productions
by Michael Meigs
Published on April 28, 2025
Gogerty's script and Katherine Catmull's electrifying performance need to be seen again and again. Unshielded by any metaphorical fourth wall, you're embraced by a ferocious storyteller.
Feast offers a shrewd re-interpretation of the classic bourgeois entertainment of "dinner and a show." Before Katherine Catmull's intense one-woman performance of Megan Gogerty's brainy, scary script based on the ancient saga of Beowulf, you can elect to start with a leisurely meal of comfort food. Dinner and a show. But this isn't a night on the town in NYC or Chicago, folks, it's Austin theatre. Sign up for the pre-performance dinner if you …
Review: Premiere by Allysen Hooks Projects
by David Glen Robinson
Published on April 26, 2025
Two ambitious pieces by Allysen Hooks explore the qualities of dream states, dreamscapes, and dream logic. We want to see more.
Allysen Hooks Projects, one of the newer dance companies in Austin, was inaugurated in 2024. Hooks, its producing artistic director, is a native Texan who moved e to NYC arly on and earned degrees from Julliard and Sarah Lawrence, then pursued her dance career in NYC for seventeen years. She brings to Austin is a fresh take on contemporary dance and a future-forward philosophy. As she phrases it, “I construct surrealist narratives aimed to …
Review: Gimpses of the Tenth Austin Dance Festival, Organized by Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company
by David Glen Robinson
Published on April 15, 2025
Quick looks at the sixteen pro presentations of KDH Dance Company's tenth annual Austin Dance Festival.
Quick looks at sixteen presentations over three days in Austin “How the West Was,” KDH Dance Company, Austin, TX. The title keys our expectations for this company for quirky, absurdist, and athletic performances underlain by deep themes of protection and commitment. Although many in the audience are familiar with the company, now under new leadership (Alyson Dolan, stepping forward for the retiring Kathy Dunn Hamrick, still beautifully present), we …
Review: Funny Girl by touring company
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on April 14, 2025
Funny Girl is, in effect, the Rosebud of the classic Broadway touring musical: a guilty childish pleasure never intended to be taken out of context.
If you know nearly nothing about Barbra Streisand, it's still likely you will be aware she is an icon. Maybe you'll have heard she has a full-scale private mall in her basement. Streisand is one of only twenty-one E.G.O.T. winners (an artist who has won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony). She's among the best-selling recording artists of all time, the only artist to have a number-one album in each of the last six …
Review: Wanna Play by Christine Hoang, Color Arc Productions
by Michael Meigs
Published on April 12, 2025
Christine Hoang's impishly cheerful story is fun and funny but also deep. Her characters face the puzzles each of us must confront if we are to search for connection.
Okay, an admission from a linguist and literary tanslator: I lack the context and historical references to identify precisely the primitive but extremely fetile ground from which Christine Hoang's Wanna Play? springs. Her meditation opens with the projection onto the Hyde Park Theatre's blank back wall of lumbering, crudely depicted adversaries in combat. Their snarling challenges to one another pop up in boxy speech bubbles before we hear the blurry voices. In video game world, …