Review: Dinner in Dubai by Bernadette Nason

by Michael Meigs
Published on July 11, 2012

Unexpectedly and with a flourish, Nason brings all this learning together and tells us just how this chipper English adventuress wound up in Austin. It's an eminently satisfying account and an outcome for which we can all be grateful.

Bernadette Nason is one of those unexpected treasures who make Austin theatre such a pleasure to explore.  I first saw her at the Austin Playhouse in Blithe Spirit by Noël Coward shortly after we arrived in Austin almost five years ago -- before, in fact, the notion of writing about Austin theatre even occurred to me. Bernadette played Madame Arcati, the loony medium who unleashes the spirit world upon the wealthy but hapless author Charles Condamine. She …

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Review: A Christmas Carol, one-actor by Bernadette Nason

by Michael Meigs
Published on December 16, 2010

Bernadette with her expressive face and sweet, clear English accent has the unimposing charm of a gamine, a young and playful woman, a presence that makes all the more impressive the range of characters she creates.

Austin Playhouse provides an atmospheric little set for Bernadette Nason's telling of A Christmas Carol, and she's in costume when she enters primly from the single door at upstage right.  Nason smiles an acknowledgment of us as she hangs up coat and scarf, then turns to address us.   From that point the story takes over, for Bernadette delivers Dickens' quick-moving, vivid text with crisp assurance and deft, economical mime.  No exaggerations or mugging here; a shift …

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