Reviews for Austin Drama Club Performances
Review: Hamlet (Austin Drama Club 6th version) by Austin Drama Club
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on August 22, 2011
Austin Drama Club’s sixth production of Hamlet is not only a look at the characters' individual mental breakdowns but also a nod at the group’s own journey.
An Unweeded Garden: Austin Drama Club’s 6thProduction of Hamlet Many will argue in favor of a favorite song or play is but few will put their money on what is the best. It is easiest to pinpoint what is the ultimate movie or band when one is, say, a freshman in college. Shakespeare is the best writer! Death Cab for Cutie is the most sublime band ever! Dostoevsky has captured the true infirmity of …
Review: Macbeth by Austin Drama Club
by Michael Meigs
Published on February 17, 2010
An evening with the ADC is an eerie and sometimes confusing experience. This is a word-of-mouth world, where the ADC core is willing to share their experience only with those who are is really, really interested in seeking them out.
Sarah England's opening turn as the witch in Macbeth for Austin Drama Club felt so, so right. She's one witch for three, huddled over a trash can lit from below and sporadically spouting CO2 smoke. Her cutting voice and spooky moves make you understand that she believes, really believes that there is dark magic at work here.That belief is the underpinning for the Austin Drama Club, an almost inexplicable group of devotees to the dark art of …
Review: Hamlet by Austin Drama Club
by Michael Meigs
Published on December 20, 2009
Japhy and Ellen Fernandes and friends are more of a cult, one that is dedicated to dark and somewhat deranged productions of the classics, each done on half a shoestring. Their output is impressive.
Going to an Austin Drama Club production is like Alice's falling down the rabbit hole into Wonderland. Their venue is a house just off E. 7th Street in Austin, Texas, and you enter through a scruffy back yard surrounded by a chain link fence. When my son and I arrived, Jennifer Fielding was standing by the gate on back yard duty. Her question was, "Have you been here before?"It wasn't a speakeasy challenge question, but …
Review: Richard III by Austin Drama Club
by Michael Meigs
Published on August 09, 2009
Julio Mella and the Austin Drama Club have translated Richard's evil into quaint modern terms -- modern, in that the early twentieth century setting is almost within living memory, and quaint, because the story mirrors popular fictions, further reinforced by the Godfather novels and movies.
He was standing at the gate when I walked up. East 7th and Concho. This looked like the place."Is this where the play is?"He looked me over. "Yeah. Go ahead. The house is open."Yes, it was open. And it was a house. Dark inside, with rough fabric curtains hanging between the entry and the kitchen, and then between the kitchen and the living area. Cooler this time, with an air conditioner laboring away in the depths …
Review: The Wizard of Oz (Austin Drama Club) by Austin Drama Club
by Michael Meigs
Published on June 09, 2009
The lighting is dim but the show is not dark, despite the Drama Club's poster of a Dorothy appearing to come from the undead. It's principally a visual transformation, an extended solarized image, since Lavergne's script is mostly verbatim from the movie.
The great myths exercise a terrific and sometimes terrifying influence on us. For example, I've been driving around Austin listening to Derek Jacobi -- first, his recitation of Mallory's Le Mort d'Arthur, and more recently, his reading of the Robert Fagles translation of The Iliad. Those are stories that shaped the self concepts of the ancient races and nations. The narratives and the rich language exercise a hypnotic influence on a listener today, despite the veil of …