Reviews for Chaotic Theatre Company Performances
Review: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) by Chaotic Theatre Company
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on September 16, 2011
The players of Chaotic Theater Company’s The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) are feigning madness half the time. The rest of the time they really are mad.
Though This Be Madness . . . When accused of madness by Rosencrantz, Hamlet replies, “I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw.” The players of Chaotic Theater Company’s The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) are similarly feigning madness half the time. The rest of the time they really are mad. With more costume changes than a Lady Gaga show, more pop …
Review: No Exit by Chaotic Theatre Company
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on July 11, 2011
Director Andrew Black’s No Exit fulfills the promises of the original play while connecting it to a modern audience in a raw and beautiful form.
Death without End Inès slips behind Estelle and coos comfortingly in her ear, gives her promises of faith, sisterhood and protection, and then suddenly she pinches her and shoves her away. . . Estelle cozies up to Garcin and whispers of an endless devotion in the only place that, endless, really has any meaning, then she turns away, haughtily dismissing him. . . Garcin shrugs aside his social predators and affirms his own …
Review: Lysistrata by Chaotic Theatre Company
by Michael Meigs
Published on June 10, 2010
Chaotic Theatre's Lysistrata is an intriguing two-speed interpretation. The thesis -- never really exploited or completely explained -- is that the events we are witnessing take place in some undefined future time.
Lysistrata is a surprise in the compact canon of Greek drama. It's Aristophanes' clever satire of two usually unassociated aspects of manliness -- the male as warrior and the male as lover. Swordsmen in each case, although of quite different aspect. There's a historical context of great seriousness to it involving wars between Greek city states in B.C. 413. That may partly explain why this text was awarded only third place in the theatrical competition …
Review: A Midsummer Night's Dream by Chaotic Theatre Company
by Michael Meigs
Published on March 10, 2010
director Michael Floyd appeared not to have defined for his company a relation with the audience, which was full and friendly that Friday evening. Soliloquies generally went into empty air, with actor's eyes directed about two feet above the heads of the audience.
This edition of A Midsummer Night's Dream was not chaotic at all, despite the name of presenting company. It was a straight-up, by-the-rules staging of Shakespeare's most popular piece.That doesn't mean that it was tidy or even, though. Director Michael Floyd and the Chaotic Theatre band had some assorted neat ideas but little vision to tie them together.Warm-up and intermission music was by the two guitars, drum and woman singer of a combo named 11 Cent Confidence, looking …