Recent Reviews
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Review: Fool for Love by Playhouse San Antonio
by Kurt Gardner
Published on January 20, 2017
Playhouse San Antonio's production of Sam Shepard's 1983 work is well-staged, but the piece itself has lost much of its original ability to shock.
So many theatrical works grow in stature and continue to preserve their ability to mesmerize new audiences as the years pass. Unfortunately, such is not the case with Sam Shepard’s 1983 Fool for Love. Though it’s well-directed and performed by a talented cast, Playhouse San Antonio’s production, currently playing in the Cellar Theatre, isn’t ever as edgy as it wants to be. The onstage violence and subversive subject may have been shocking 34 years ago, …
Review: The Rat Pack Lounge by Roxie Theatre Company
by Kurt Gardner
Published on January 19, 2017
It’s silly stuff, but director Jonathan Pennington has fun with the off-the-wall material, and his easygoing cast goes along with the gag. Virtually the entire second act is a concert.
James Hindman and Ray Roderick’s The Rat Pack Lounge is predominantly a concert tribute to Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr. That’s a good thing, because what plot there is seems to be a mashup of It’s a Wonderful Life and Forever Plaid that’s both bizarre and bizarrely complicated. Here’s the plot, such as it is. The Rat Packers, all happily dwelling in Heaven, are ordered by God to return to earth to …
Review #2 of 2: Dead Man's Cell Phone by Sara Ruhl, En Route Productions
by David Glen Robinson
Published on January 15, 2017
Jean tells whoppers to make the world a better place but she doesn't anticipate the consequences. Trouble is funny, and Sarah Ruhl’s play is an extraordinary example of postmodern comedic absurdism.
The set is a café. The décor is generally rectilinear, with many sharp lines and planes. Let’s call it Finnish Modern, because it is designed by Ia Ensterä, Finland’s design gift to Austin. Ms Ensterä is currently dividing her time between Finland in pursuit of an advanced degree and Austin for many creative design projects. Her set here is dominated by a wall installation of small brown and white boxes. Some of them have cut-outs …
Review #1 of 2: Dead Man's Cell Phone by En Route Productions
by Michael Meigs
Published on January 12, 2017
DEAD MAN'S CELL PHONE is a deadpan look at hope and death and the invisible lines that connect us or break, a piece more likely to provoke reflection than hilarity -- and a significant work of theatre art.
It used to be that when you died, you were dead. Now, not so much. How much of yourself have you invested in Facebook? How much do you want to leave floating in the ether and accessible once death, random but inevitable and invisible, comes calling? The guys at Facebook corporate developed policies for that, by the way, and posted them in 2015. And if like so many of us today you're living on your …
Review: The Noisy Neighbors, or The Square (Il Campiello) by Different Stages
by Michael Meigs
Published on January 11, 2017
Each of the dozen actors in Goldoni's exuberant comedy fits snugly into a stereotype and charms us with it. You never quite know which combination of characters is going to plunge onstage.
Indeed, they are noisy, and they can come at you from just about anywhere, since there are six entrances and three windows in Ann Marie Gordon's intentionally rickety set plus the black box theatre aisles left and right. The adaptation by Richard Nelson of Yale is faithful to the spirit of Goldoni's commedia dell'arte piece for Carnival in Venice in 1756, although you'll immediately recognize the tunes sung by the ensemble with lyrics completely different …
Two Reviews: HIR by Capital T Theatre
by David Glen Robinson
Published on January 10, 2017
Taylor Mac’s HIR begins in interior landscapes and stays there, showing us erosion and devastation from multiple sources. Apparently the white middle class must erode heavily before we enter the golden age of gender liberation.
Hir by Taylor Mac is a monster of a play. When the first images of the set and the figures standing on it strike the audience, the observers suddenly have bilious feelings, the kind that lead to nausea, rubbing the stomach, and holding nostrils closed against stale, unkempt apartment odors and bodily ooze. At first one thinks this is monstrous rather than a monster, in the sense of having overwhelming scope with lessons of great …