Reviews for Capital T Theatre Performances
Review: It Is Magic by Capital T Theatre
by David Glen Robinson
Published on October 27, 2019
There is something here for everyone who appreciates art in any mode, who feels transported by a painting, song, opera, or movie, and who then simply calls it magic.
Mickle Maher is becoming a synonym for prolific. It Is Magic is his latest play, receiving its regional premiere now from Capital T Theatre at Hyde Park Theatre. Mark Pickell directs. The play is self-reflexive in the extreme, about theatre people obsessed with theatre, auditioning for theatre in a theatre basement while theatre happens upstairs on the theatre mainstage. The play is about theatre. But no, non-play-going people need not switch channels now, because the story …
Review: Small Mouth Sounds by Capital T Theatre
by David Glen Robinson
Published on May 24, 2018
The characters in this silence-obligatory experience are immensely diverse but denied the luxury of getting-to-know-you chat. We see a lot of informal signing, pantomime, role-playing, charades, and utter frustration. The funniest moments are when missed messages cause meltdowns.
Small Mouth Sounds by Bess Wohl, now playing at Hyde Park Theatre, is one of those small-scale modern plays that compete for stage space in 21st century American regional theatre. That quality may make the play difficult to see in the lush forest of contemporary plays, but it has the quirky originality that Capital T Theatre loves to spy out. Hence the current production. The characters don’t know each other (except the lesbian …
Review: The Brothers Size by Capital T Theatre
by David Glen Robinson
Published on October 30, 2017
Playwright McCraney succeeds brilliantly with the poetry and song flowing through his play. It plays as though every spoken phrase is a musical chord, simultaneously touching each of the levels: the gods, the poverty stricken, the slaves, and the mythic figures enact their destinies.
The Brothers Size by Tarell Alvin McCraney is an evening-length one-act contemporary play, part II of his award-winning Brother/Sister Plays trilogy. Capital T Theatre has scored a major advance in bringing The Brothers Size to Austin with a four star cast of three, directed by Jason Phelps. McCraney has won numerous awards and is currently the playwriting chair at the Yale School of Drama. Additionally, he co-wrote the screenplay for the Academy Award winning …
Review: Title and Deed by Capital T Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on August 27, 2017
One speaker on a bare stage spins word webs about his world, all insubstantial and yet so vital. To what are we entitled? What are we to do? Speaking as that anonymous yearning affable individual, before disappearing from view Phelps offers us Eno's parting words in inconclusive summary.
This stark, brainy and hypnotizing production of Will Eno's curious Title and Deed placed me in a confusion of circumstances that further magnified the power of Jason Phelps's performance. In the Austin darkness outside the safe space of the Hyde Park Theatre a hurricane was brewing and coming in our direction. Placed before the darkness of the audience areas, Mark Pickell's set is an assembly of floorboards with untrimmed edges, the merest …
Review: The Effect by Capital T Theatre
by David Glen Robinson
Published on May 30, 2017
A second act dialogue between pharmaceutical trial subjects Delanté Keys and Sarah Danko transcends by far any acting studio exercise, every impassioned phrase crystal clear. And then, dang! That was followed by an equally skilled dialogue between Rebecca Robinson and Rommel Sulit.
The Effect by Lucy Prebble takes us into clinical trials and testing, and offers us a glimpse of what we’ve always suspected really goes on in the corridors and sancta of pharmaceutical research. Yes, deep in the core of the institution, much as at Pharmaco in Austin, there beats a heart of love. This play is a love story, and it veers close to the Romeo and Juliet model of all such although not too close. …
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 …