Recent Reviews
Review: Wittenberg by Playhouse San Antonio
by Michael Meigs
Published on November 14, 2014
Davalos puts Faustus on the philosophy faculty, devoted to independent inquiry, presents Martin Luther as a somber senior lecturer in theology, and portrays the undergraduate Hamlet as indecisive, moody, and something of a slacker. And so the fun begins.
There's some wickedly clever entertainment taking place down in the cellar of Playhouse San Antonio, where playwright-actor David Davalos is doing saucy stand-up comedy set in early 16th century Germany. In the second scene of Hamlet, Claudius the new king informs the prince, "For your intent in going back to school in Wittenberg, It is most retrograde to our desire." That university in Saxony, nearly a century old when Shakespeare was writing, was reputed in …
Review: Wail by Gale Theatre Company
by Michael Meigs
Published on November 12, 2014
Like all black box theatres, the playing space at the Vortex is vibrant with possibilities. It resembles Hamlet’s walnut:"I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space." And it’s subject to the same proviso: "Were it not that I had bad dreams!" In their performance of Wail Gale Theatre Company, devotees of devised theatre, explore bad dreams with a spooky, kinetic ferocity. Mary Catherine’s perched onstage as the audience …
Review: Ay, No! by Teatro Vivo
by Michael Meigs
Published on November 09, 2014
Coronado Castillo's piece would have been more satisfying if it had offered some hope of enduring emotional attachment between the two women. Instead, she pumps us up with the comedy of mockery, exaggeration and irony.
Liz Coronado Castillo's comedy telegraphs its quirky contradictions right on the poster: One chica. Two tías. And three fairy-drag-queens. The mind boggles: let's fling a trio of campy drag performers into a patio occupied by a thoroughly traditional Latino matriarchy and enjoy the fireworks and confusion. On opening night most of the audience was enthusiastic and willing to linger afterwards to praise the humor and the message of tolerance. Aye, No! balances those two worlds …
Review: Aye, No! by Teatro Vivo
by Michael Meigs
Published on November 09, 2014
Liz Coronado Castillo's comedy telegraphs its quirky contradictions right on the poster: One chica. Two tías. And three fairy-drag-queens. The mind boggles: let's fling a trio of campy drag performers into a patio occupied by a thoroughly traditional Latino matriarchy and enjoy the fireworks and confusion. On opening night most of the audience was enthusiastic and willing to linger afterwards to praise the humor and the message of tolerance. Aye, No! balances those two worlds …
Review: The Strange Case of Edward Hyde and Dr. Jekyll by Trouble Puppet Theatre Company
by David Glen Robinson
Published on November 02, 2014
Trouble Puppet Theater Company has opened a new work adaptation of classic popular literature, The Strange Case of Edward Hyde and Dr. Jekyll, at Salvage Vanguard Theatre on the east side. Admiring fans of Trouble Puppet have waited a while for a new production from the intrepid puppeteers, and they will find the results well worth the wait. This new work shows theatrical growth while retaining the freshness and keen imagination for which Trouble Puppet …
Review: Peer Gynt by Last Act Theatre Company
by Michael Meigs
Published on October 28, 2014
Henrik Ibsen's second-floor apartment is maintained and curated today as a major tourist attraction in Oslo, the capital of Norway. This past summer we found it rather impressive; it's so centrally located that in the last years of his life the grumpy little man with sideburns and top hat could easily take his daily constitutional down to the Grand Cafe for cigars and coffee. By that time he was a Great Man, eagerly pointed out …