Reviews for Austin Shakespeare Performances
Review: Arcadia by Austin Shakespeare
by Michael Meigs
Published on February 09, 2012
Georgia McLeland is a natural -- perfectly in mastery of her character, playful and thoughtful by turns and entirely convincing. Our hearts go out to her as we watch her quiet delight at her first and last waltz with Septimus in the final scene.
Tom Stoppard's Arcadia shines with wit and whimsicality. The dialogues between these characters are so quick and clever that sometimes you perch on the edge of your seat, breathlessly holding back your laughter so that you won't miss a single syllable. This is wit writ deep -- in the characters, their contrasting views of the world and their social positions; in dissembling, feuding and courtship; and in the juxtaposition and then the overlapping within the same genteel …
Review: Hamlet by Austin Shakespeare
by Michael Meigs
Published on October 02, 2011
Austin Shakespeare's Hamlet is a riveting evening, despite the questions and issues that this staging raises.
The question that must be addressed when discussing this Hamlet staged by Austin Shakespeare is not "Why cast Helen Merino for the title role?" but rather "What does casting Helen Merino as Hamlet do to the play?" Merino played Hamlet ten years ago for the same organization, then known as the Austin Shakespeare Festival, at free performances in Zilker Park downtown. She was an Austin favorite at that time; a 2001 article in the weekly Austin Chronicle identified …
Review: Love's Labor's Lost by Austin Shakespeare
by Michael Meigs
Published on May 16, 2011
This is a fine evening of theatre and a gift to Austin. It's colorful, funny, accomplished and Shakespeare, all together.
Robert Faires' imaginative staging of Love's Labor's Lost takes place at the Sheffield Hillside Theatre in Zilker Park, literally a stone's throw away from Barton Springs pool. Spectators spread out blankets or set up lawn chairs in the sloped meadow above the playing area and settle in for the pleasures of free entertainment for a Texas evening in May. Love's Labor's Lost is one of Shakespeare's earliest comedies and not one of the world's favorites. The language …
Review: The Tempest by Austin Shakespeare
by Michael Meigs
Published on September 17, 2010
The real entertainers of this piece are Michael Amendola as Caliban, elastic, resentful and credulous; Nathan Jerkins who creates a joyfully inebriated Stephano,; and Michael Dalmon's not-too-bright but terribly earnest Trinculo the jester. Every moment these fellows are on stage is a delight.
Prospero's kingdom is an enchanted isle, suggested by the wide circle marked out on the floor of the Rollins Theatre. As did Shakespeare, Ann Ciccolella invites the audience to create that world by participating with their imaginations. The scenery is minimal -- little more than towering dark blue flats at the back of the playing area, an unassuming balcony or elevation at stage right, rear, and a couple of rickety bushes on platforms pushed onstage …
Review: The Dream (adapted from A Midsummer Night's Dream) by Austin Shakespeare
by Michael Meigs
Published on May 04, 2010
The Dream is Shakespeare lite, and it presents an attractive magic world for your evening in the park. There's no admission charge, so you're getting a whole lot more than you pay for.
This is Shakespeare for a summery night in Zilker Park. The slope above the Hillside Theatre is wide and gentle, the perfect place to sprawl out on a blanket as the stars come out, the players play, the music sounds, and the action flits before you. A Midsummer Night's Dream is a favorite, in part because it is sweet and not particularly demanding. Shakespeare runs masques with the Duke's court, with the fairy court, with …
Review: The Taming of the Shrew (all-women version) by Austin Shakespeare
by Michael Meigs
Published on March 26, 2010
In the post-show discussion on opening night, University of Texas prof Dr. Emily Richmond-Garza, head of the comp lit department, reminded actors and audience that in the theatre of Shakespeare's time there were two sure-fire crowd-pleasing delights: fights and wife-beatings.
Much of the comedy in Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew arises from farcical transformation. Lucentio changes places with his servant Tranio; both suitors to the fair Bianca disguise themselves as tutors; an aged traveler is intimidated into playing the part of wealthy old Vincentio, Lucentio's father. And of course, the titular shrew of the piece, "Kate the curs't," is a woman seeking to assert her rights to autonomy, choice and respect, as if she had all the …