Recent Reviews
Review: ANY NIGHT by Elizabeth V. Newman Productions at City Theatre, September 21 - October 9, 2016
by Michael Meigs
Published on September 27, 2016
Most of all, this is a gripping fable about trust. Face value cannot be assumed. Face is valueless here; faces may be masks or, equally, those who see them may be delusional.
Any night you participate in this disquieting evenng at City Theatre you'll be seeing two actors-- but at least nine characters. Or, to put it a different way, in the eerie ninety minutes you'll be spending in this netherworld, slim and vulnerable Marie Rose Fahlgren will flicker between states of reality as Anna, an earnest and emotional young woman trying to break away from a former relationship. Zac Thomas will be variously geeky stammering Patrick, …
Review: Twelfth Night by Present Company Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on September 22, 2016
The cast of this lively and family-friendly TWELFTH NIGHT are among the best devotees of Shakespeare in the city, the ones we are wont to take delight in.
Fun, family-friendly, free and right downtown where all the cool kids shop -- can this be Shakespeare? The clever theatre folk of Present Company have been here before, and this cheerful picnic-style produiction of the comedy Twelfth Night on the easily accessed rooftop terrace of the Whole Foods flagship store at 5th & Lamar in Austin is just as accomplished as their 2014 Much Ado About Nothin and their 2015 Love's Labor's Lost in the …
Review: A Shadow Among Strangers by University of Texas Theatre & Dance
by Michael Meigs
Published on September 18, 2016
Lucien Douglas could have captivated us even if he'd performed this piece out at the intersection of San Jacinto and 23rd Street. Razzle-dazzle em -- and let 'em know they've been razzle-dazzled.
Sometimes you just have to show them how it's done. Lucien Douglas, professor of theatre at the University of Texas at Austin, has received plenty of acclaim: the College of Fine Arts award for excellence in teaching in 2012 and the UT Systems Regents' award for the same in 2014. His list of acting credits and theatre accomplishments, summarized in the program leaflet and on-line, would probably be as long as your arm if you …
Review: Songs for a New World by Oh Dragon Theatre Company
by Michael Meigs
Published on September 15, 2016
Sixteen glittering stories on a twisting and twirling arc are a bit disorienting, but this voyage into the uncertainties of life offers rewards and serendipity throughout the evening.
Oh Dragon Theatre took me by surprise with Jason Robert Brown's Songs for a New World. As a reviewer at CTX Live Theatre, I'm dedicated to the CTXLT principle of viewing and reviewing live narrative theatre produced in Central Texas -- with 'narrative theatre' specifically defined as "the presentation of a story via the interpretation of a set text." This evening is a lively presentation of Brown's first stage work, done in 1995. He was …
Review: The Merry Wives of Windsor by Scottish Rite Theater
by Michael Meigs
Published on September 14, 2016
Susan Gaye Todd's staging of Shakespeare's THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR was a gem in a jewel box, a cleverly ironic cross-gendering of a middling Shakespeare comedy that gave it joy and bite.
Susan Gaye Todd's staging of The Merry Wives of Windsor was a gem in a jewel box. For the last couple of years Todd has directed the theatre programs at the Scottish Rite Theatre (SRT) in downtown Austin, housed in a 19th century building just south of the University of Texas. The SRT has long played to audiences of children and parents, and Todd has continued that tradition with something of a quirky international flair …
Review: The Totalitarians by Theatre en Bloc
by David Glen Robinson
Published on September 12, 2016
Barbara Chisholm performs a great and memorable role as the driving, power-grabbing, darkly inflected, ultimately daffy Penelope. She shares herself with an immense radiant energy.
Comedies about tragedies have extra bite. Schadenfreude wells up from within the audience and pours out on the hapless, ridiculous characters on stage. In The Totalitarians by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb, the laughter is giggly, a little embarrassed, and masked until the second act when audience members yield to their impulses and fall into unabashed guffaws and cheering. After that they see what a tragedy is unfolding before them. Perhaps a few think back to an …