Recent Reviews
Review: Endgame by Palindrome Theatre (2010-2013)
by Michael Meigs
Published on January 21, 2010
Not comfortable. Not a rib-tickler. Endgame is, rather, a sour-sweet paradigm of the slow end of life, and those things we simple mortals do in our attempts to meet, understand, and delay the conclusion.
Palindrome Theatre takes you right out to the edge of the abyss with Samuel Beckett's Endgame: ninety minutes at the end of the world with four arresting characters who wrap up existence and the fitful light of human life.Endgame is grim, yes, but it's blazingly comic at times, as well. In the shadows of this basement room the ancient Nell shares a memory with her foolish senescent husband Nagg. "Nothing is funnier than unhappiness, I …
Review of Abuelita de Batman, by Proyecto Teatro
by Michael Meigs
Published on January 20, 2010
Pieces with flair and fine scenic taste -- a far better and more entertaining glance into the Latino psyche than those interminable telenovelas.
No, you probably have not heard of Proyecto Teatro, even though the group has been staging theatre and running classes in Austin since 2004. They're the only 100% Spanish language theatre in town. Artistic director Luis Ordaz, a multi-talented wild man, both directs Abuelita de Batman ("Batman's Granny")and appears in one of the five short pieces. This piece was written in the 1980's by the highly prolific and successful Mexican playwright and screen writer Alejandro …
Review: Talking with Jane Martin, by Red Dragon Players, Austin High School
by Michael Meigs
Published on January 18, 2010
A collection of sharp, bittersweet portraits of women, many of whom have reacted to disappointments by melting into private worlds.
Talking With is a collection of eleven monologues delivered by women characters, first staged in 1981 in Louisville, Kentucky. It played off-Broadway in 1982 to great success. The identity of playwright Jane Martin remains a mystery. All of her considerable work has first been staged at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, Kentucky, by that group's artistic director John Jory. This is a collection of sharp, bittersweet portraits of women, many of whom have reacted to …
Review: Eurydice by Different Stages
by Michael Meigs
Published on January 14, 2010
It's disconcerting to see Ruhl the brief spark of human existence into drollery. A bit like accepting a slice of birthday cake and finding it full of shards of glass.
Sarah Ruhl's version of the Eurydice myth begins as a fable. Nicole Swahn, the childishly enthusiastic and simple-minded Eurydice, frolics at the beach with Bastion Carboni as her beau, the music geek Orpheus. They're on their way to an unreflecting storybook wedding. Little matter that she has no comprehension of the music in his head and apparently no head for her own history. In part, because she's not getting the mail. We learn that Eurydice's …
Review: World's Fastest Hamlet 2009 by Austin Shakespeare
by Michael Meigs
Published on January 09, 2010
This show was the ridiculous happily distilled from the sublime. In a sense, Austin Shakespeare company members were parodying themselves and the whole enterprise of acting.
Austin Shakespeare winked at the bard and happily laughed at itself with The World's Fastest Hamlet, a twenty-minute show given its second (annual?) staging at First Night Austin, the December 31 downtown festival.Last year the same four-actor cast performed twice under the First Street Bridge during a bright, mild afternoon. This year they briefly took the music stage at City Hall Plaza at 6:15 p.m. as dark fell and the First Night parade unwound behind …
Review: Annie, the musical by The Georgetown Palace Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on January 01, 2010
Seeing Annie for a second time I was struck by the imagination and flair of its design elements.
For the performance of December 23, 2009: I brought six family members to see Annie on December 23 and all were delighted. This wasn't the same show that ALT reviewed on November 28. Director Mary Ellen Butler and the Georgetown Palace team chose to maximize participation and presentation for their end-of-2009 holiday production. Leading roles were double- or triple-cast and ensemble roles were double-cast, resulting in a complicated mosaic for the 106 actors and the …