Recent Reviews
Review: Doctor Faustus by Last Act Theatre Company
by Michael Meigs
Published on October 24, 2012
This is a morality play in which the protagonist stands between the stark absolutes of God and the Devil, heaven and hell, the throne of God and the fiery pit. McLemore's Faustus does not appear to pause to reflect seriously on any of this and comes across as a young man throughout.
Faustus, why do you torment me so? This production of the work of the mercurial Christopher Marlowe, an exact contemporary of Shakespeare, stabbed to death in a tavern at the age of 29, held me at an uneasy distance despite its robust verse and stark dilemma. Austin's Last Act Theatre Company, just over a year old, demonstrates its art and vaunting ambition in daring to take on this text. Their productions for love of the …
Review: Baby, the musical by Austin Theatre Project
by Michael Meigs
Published on October 22, 2012
Those of us who've navigated all three stages of life portrayed here will be fully vulnerable to all three, and may well recognize a dynamic typical to devoted couples: often one is the optimistic emotional plunger while the other is more aware of consequences.
No, it's not really about babies at all. Baby the musical is about anticipation, apprehension and the enormous changes that loom when a couple faces the prospect of having -- or not having -- a child. With their cheerily pulsating opening numbers Baby Baby Baby and I Want It All , David Shire and Richard Maltby suggest a merry adventure, but -- as in real life -- elation gives way to uncertainty in face of …
Review: This - Uh - Body by Austin Mime Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on October 19, 2012
As one absorbed these contrasts and pondered the message, an entirely different theme inevitably echoed, silent but loud: when does mime become ballet?
The Austin Mime Theatre is Michael Lee, a talented, craggily handsome, full-fledged and fully diploma-ed mime. Yes, he studied with Marcel Marceau, the genius whose grace, dexterity and striking appearance became the essence of mime -- the "art of silence" -- for the Western world in the second half of the twentieth century. Marceau died in 2007 at the age of 84, and Michael Lee is justifiably proud to list in the program that he …
Review: The Man Who Planted Trees by Exchange Artists
by David Glen Robinson
Published on October 12, 2012
A foreign-language play right here in River City? Don’t let any perceived language barrier deter you from receiving the delights of this rare work.
The story of how Sparky Pocket Park on Grooms St. in central Austin came to exist is a drama all by itself, involving City departments and neighborhood voters. But that story is for another time; I went there on this chilly October evening to see the site-specific work by the Exchange Artists, The Man Who Planted Trees, based on a story by the French writer Jean Giono. I certainly was not disappointed in my expectations. …
Review: Moonlight and Magnolias by Penfold Theatre Company
by David Glen Robinson
Published on October 09, 2012
. . . fast-paced and funny. Director Robert Faires was inventive in his blocking and scrupulous in keeping clear sight lines and audible diction.
Moonlight and Magnolias by Ron Hutchinson is a romp and a challenge for comedic actors. Penfold Theatre Company is giving it a go in the City Theatre behind the Shell station on Airport Boulevard, exciting the audience members who actually manage to find the venue. The play is relatively new, published in 2004, but it is set in Hollywood, 1939, specifically in the the executive office of Producer David O. Selznick (Ryan Crowder). Shooting of …
Review: Just Outside Redemption by Theatre en Bloc
by Michael Meigs
Published on September 27, 2012
In the excitement of the effective retelling of what was really a legislative history and in the midst of the adulation of those who brought it about more than a decade ago, that sense of community and common purpose was reaffirmed.
In his current All Over Creation essay in the Austin Chronicle Robert Faires muses over the moral dilemma you face when your theatre friends come to you after a performance you didn't particularly care for and expectantly await your reaction. Faires has been on both sides of that divide, for in addition to his roles as a reviewer, critic and arts writer he's an actor and a director, opening his staging of the comedy Moonlight …