Recent Reviews
Review: The Idiot by University of Texas Theatre & Dance
by Michael Meigs
Published on March 06, 2009
The playwright's work is made easier by the luminiscent acting of Tom Truss as Myshkin. Truss shows us a man who is simple yet exceedingly complex -- a man whose emotions war openly in his face.
Scott Kanoff's transformation of Dostoyevski's novel gives us a luminous experience, a comedy of manners of the 19th century Russian aristocracy tracked and threatened by deep and pernicious evil.The Thursday night performance was sold out. The largely undergraduate audience around the wide thrust space of the Brockett Theatre fastened on every word throughout, even though the piece runs a full three hours, including its 15-minute intermission.Prince Lev Nikolaevich Myshkin is returning to Moscow from Switzerland, …
Review: God's Man in Texas by The Georgetown Palace Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on March 03, 2009
Andy Brown represents for us all those thousands who are faithful clients of this huge enterprise. We identify with him as we see him hesitate, apprehensive about this new development, about these new people, and about the uncertainty of Gottschall's reaction to unwelcome news.
With her decision to stage God's Man in Texas at the Georgetown Palace Theatre, artistic director Mary Ellen Butler has taken a risk. She acknowledges in the program that she has waited seven years to put it on -- "as the Palace grew . . . in depth of audience, attendance, and actor availability."The Palace is now a highly successful non-profit venture, depending on a local audience including a big percentage of retirees -- folks …
Review: Fences by The City Theatre Company
by Michael Meigs
Published on March 01, 2009
This father-son relationship is as tense and dangerous as a live wire. The casting here is superb and the duo scenes are riveting.
The City Theatre production of August Wilson's Fences is powerful, intelligent, deep, universal and fully realized. It is by far the most impressive modern drama staged to date in this Austin theatre season. This is theatre not to be missed.The year is 1957, but it could be any time in history. The place is a black neighborhood in Pittsburgh, like that in which August Wilson grew up, but it could be any close-knit community. August …
Review: Three Days of Rain by Penfold Theatre Company
by Michael Meigs
Published on February 22, 2009
Had we but world enough and time, Three Days of Rain would be one of those rare theatre pieces to attend several times. Both script and performances offer nuance, detail and revelations to deepen meanings upon each viewing.
This play by Penfold Theatre is a gem. Coming after their play The Last Five Years in January of this year, it confirms that the Penfold company has a vision and a talent for choosing and staging pieces that fit it.Richard Greenberg's Three Days of Rain might just as well have been titled Two Generations or Hopes and Enigmas, because those three days are mentioned only in a scribbled note in a diary. They become …
Review: Heroes by Austin Playhouse
by Michael Meigs
Published on February 22, 2009
The fact that Sibleyras can now mock those valiant geezers and the first half of France's twentieth century is a sign that, at last, his countrymen are beginning once again to feel at ease in their skins.
A quiet word in your ear: do not expect too much of this gentle little three-character play. Don't over analyze it, and don't expect to the whip-smart verbal play typical of Tom Stoppard's own work. Author Gérard SIbleyras isn't loading symbolism onto his 2005 creation.Three ageing French military officers in an old soldiers' home, in 1959. They meet daily, for hours, on a secluded terrace with a view of fields and, in the distance, a …
Review: Sherlock Holmes by Weird City Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on February 20, 2009
John Carroll is magnificent as Sherlock Holmes. Restless of spirit, articulate with riveting speech and gesture, subject to ennui and spleen, contemptuous of danger, he is most emphatically larger than life.
William Gillette introduced a new naturalism to the theatre of the late 19th century, exercising an influence that helped convert the broad, artificial acting styles of the day into something more more natural. With his impressive charisma, he used silent stage business to carry part of the story; as a playwright and director he pioneered the use of fades and blackouts. He was hugely, hugely successful, earning enough to buy himself a river steamer and …