Recent Reviews
Review: Common Ground by Pro-Arts Collective
by Michael Meigs
Published on April 06, 2009
Though it has a quick-step rhythm and plenty of incident, this common ground has little depth. The plot is about two inches deep, like sparse topsoil in the worst farmlands of Texas.
An impressive cast brought San Antonio playwright Antoinette Winstead's Common Ground to the Boyd Vance theatre this past weekend, with the sponsorship of the Pro Arts Collective. LeVan Owens stands tall at the center of the piece, in the character of James Parker, a powerfully built man stiff legged from a rodeo accident long ago. He's a dutiful son enduring a deep, mute resentment.Winstead sets the piece at a Christmas sometime in the early 70s, …
Review: Time Steps by ScriptWorks
by Michael Meigs
Published on April 05, 2009
A good time was had by all. Are any longer scripts brewing over there? As Mickey Rooney used to say to Judy Garland, "Say, kids, let's put on a show!"
The gathering for Time Steps at the Blue Theatre last Thursday felt like skit night at the close of summer camp. Friendly excitement, lots of young adults, and a program based on games, brainstorming and collaborative action, intended to amuse and astound us over the course of a short evening. The Blue Theatre itself, tucked away behind the Goodwill warehouses in East Austin, is a found venue of sorts, redolent of much earnest make believe.Austin …
Review: Grease by The Georgetown Palace Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on April 03, 2009
The Georgetown Palace Theatre is back to doing what they do best -- a rollicking big musical comedy with lots of dance,sparkling with a glitzy coating of happy nostalgia.
The Georgetown Palace Theatre is back to doing what they do best -- a rollicking big musical comedy with lots of dance,sparkling with a glitzy coating of happy nostalgia. Grease is no trail breaker, but it's for sure an entertainment where the whole family can kick back and enjoy. With the bonus that they'll learn that live theatre is so much more than the talking pictures from the 1978 movie with John Travolta and Olivia …
Review: My Child, My Alien Child by Zell Miller III
by Michael Meigs
Published on April 03, 2009
Last year the Austin Chronicle called Zell Miller III "an incendiary device waiting to go off." You can certainly see the flame in the man, but when he talks about becoming a father it burns with a completely different light.
A review last year in the Austin Chronicle called Zell Miller III "an incendiary device waiting to go off." You can certainly see the flame in the man, but when he talks about becoming a father it burns with a completely different light.Becoming a parent is a life-changing event and, again and again, a mind-blowing one. I remember clearly the first session of the birthing class, and the electric zap! that went through me when …
Review: A Flea in Her Ear by Austin Playhouse
by Michael Meigs
Published on April 02, 2009
J. Ben Wolfe does a wonderful slow burn, complete with barely visible facial tic. His single-minded comic stalking of Lucienne and a non-existent lover throw delicious danger and thrill into otherwise frivolous caperings.
In the madcap 19th century world of French playwright Georges Feydeau, two qualities in farce are certain to produce merriment: man's unfulfilled desire and woman's unsatisfied curiosity.No one ever says that, of course. This is not Oscar Wilde, his contemporary from across the channel.The ample, delighted laughter at Austin Playhouse's production of A Flea in Her Ear is provoked by antics, deceptions and astonishing coincidences that bring respectable bourgeois folk sneaking into the shady world …
Review: Seven Jewish Children by Cambiare Productions
by Michael Meigs
Published on March 31, 2009
They use Churchill's words to depict human confusion, adult duplicity and wishful thinking, and the many possible reactions to horror, threat and trauma.
The speech for World Theatre Day written by Brazilian author Augusto Boal was read by Robert Faires of the Austin Chronicle. Boal's comments are brief, but they sum up a lifetime of theatre, political activism and teaching, following his arrest by the Brazilian military government in 1972 and twelve years in exile. Boal's principal concept is expressed immediately in the opening: All human societies are “spectacular” in their daily life and produce “spectacles” at special …