Recent Reviews
Review: Naked as a Gaybird by Salvage Vanguard Theater
by David Glen Robinson
Published on November 07, 2015
Many of Jay Byrd's stories are tinged with tragedy or are outright tragedies; this reviewer often wondered if he should be laughing at them at all.
Jay Byrd's autobiographical one-man show Naked as a Gaybird is strong in content and themes. It's a demonstration of skill and fortitude, as any one-actor show must be. Byrd is well up to the task, with the aid of director Jenny Larson. His show is also a work of penis adoration, the visuals mostly presented in cartoon animation videos by Ray Ray Mitrano and Aron Taylor. In hilarious presentation Byrd tells about growing up gay …
Review: Marisol by Texas State University
by Michael Meigs
Published on November 05, 2015
This production of Marisol missed its time slot by a week, for its serious weirdness would have been appropriate for Halloween.
José Rivera's 1993 phantasmagorical play Marisol was awarded an Off-Broadway (Obie) award for playwriting. It must have gotten attention for the deranged excesses of his picture of New York City and a world gone wrong. Rivera imagines a dark, dark world -- morally, ethically and literally, for the sun hasn't been seen for months and there's every indication that the laws of physics have warped beyond predictability. The sun rises in the north and sets …
Review: Frankenstein by Trouble Puppet Theatre Company
by David Glen Robinson
Published on November 04, 2015
In a brilliant stage presentation full of imagery, the singular Connor Hopkins' Frankenstein is a robo-articulated concatenation of images with sinuous reptilian movement.
This is not like anybody else’s version of Frankenstein, and it is not even like Trouble Puppet’s earlier adaptations of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's literary classic. It's a full, 21st century updatingin a stylish live theatre presentation. It offers new material and extends the plot with shadow puppets and other material. Not all theatergoers find puppet theatre a full and satisfying experience. Some cannot make the mental switch away from seeing puppetry as animated dolls playing …
Review: La Muerte Alegre by Teatro Espacio Agua Viva
by Michael Meigs
Published on October 26, 2015
With its graceful charm and commedia dell'arte framework this 1908 Russian fantasy done in Spanish offers a sly admonitory message for the Día de los Muertos.
Most Anglos are put off by the Day of the Dead holiday. Skeletons, graves, and altars? Popular American culture has had little problem celebrating zombies, Frankenstein and Dracula, but those fantasy folk are at a comfortable distance from us. Anglo America prefers to keep death hygenic, remote and out of sight. Mexico's Catholic and indigenous traditions look both death and family square in the face. Unlike the French traditional practice of simply visiting cemetaries on …
Review: The Quarry by Hyde Park Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on October 24, 2015
Two luminiscent performances by women company members are remarkably different but equally striking and captivating in this serenely puzzling story.
Hyde Park Theatre's production of The Quarry by Greg Pierce offers not one but two luminiscent performances by women company members. They're remarkably different but equally striking and captivating, demonstrations of the vitality of this long running and well established theatre. The HPT is a theatre that one's almost reluctant to write about, because it's a gem, hidden in plain sight. This reviewer, like Gollum, would really prefer to keep this 'precious' for himself. The …
Review: Cloud Formations by Bottle Alley Theatre Company
by Michael Meigs
Published on October 21, 2015
Playwright Fontanes has a thing for strong women protagonists, and Samantha Ireland as Marlow is the forceful and articulate but existentially confused center of this piece.
Chris Fontanes' Cloud Formations sets a Zen-like entry to the world of shadows it depicts. Part of that is the venue, Sessions on Mary, a 78704 bungalow with a scrap of yard out front, and part may be unintentional, an oversight in the publicity. Cloud Formations is announced for 7:30 p.m. Fridays - Sundays. In fact, the house opens at 7:30, but the action of the play begins sometime closer to 8 p.m. As happened …