Reviews for Hyde Park Theatre Performances
Review: Slowgirl by Hyde Park Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on March 24, 2013
Greg Pierce's script has vivid, often wildly comic dialogue and a story of satisfying depth and emotion. The two actors onstage are joined by a full unseen cast in their back stories.
I went to Costa Rica twice this week with Becky to see Sterling. Snapped up the opportunity to slip into a Monday evening preview of Slowgirl by Greg Pierce at the Hyde Park Theatre. Then on Friday I took Karen along to Sterling's open-air hacienda in the dry jungle nine hours away from San José, the capital. It wasn't a long visit -- just under ninety uninterrupted minutes on the veranda and at the labyrinth …
Review: Tigers Be Still by Hyde Park Theatre
by Catherine Dribb
Published on July 27, 2012
Tigers Be Still will have you falling out of those new comfy chairs at the Hyde Park Theater. It's that good. Wow. Raunchy and redemptive.
Kim Rosenstock’s play Tigers Be Still is a well-woven, touching narrative about family triumph (thread that needle!), tragedy (Bette Midler karaoke is never okay) and of course, tigers. And it will have you falling out of those new comfy chairs at the Hyde Park Theater. It’s that good. With a sick mother upstairs and two sisters trying to get their sh*t together, Tigers Be Still seemed an unusual pick for Hyde Park Theatre after Marion …
Review: The Aliens by Hyde Park Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on March 26, 2012
Yes, these losers are geniuses -- once you accept Baker's premise that living in this world and making any artistic effort, however ineptly, gives one a glowing human dignity.
The Aliens by young play writing genius Annie Baker is a dazzling, offbeat oratorio of inarticulate thought and emotion. Out back of a Vermont coffee shop there's a dingy employee break area. K.J. and Jasper, guys from nowhere of consequence, have appropriated it as their own hang-out space, like a couple of raccoons nesting under a deck. K.J. sits motionless for long periods, lost in vague thought, surfacing from time to time to renew contact. …
Review: Circle Mirror Transformation by Hyde Park Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on July 19, 2010
It's a bit of an inside joke. A cast of accomplished actors is impersonating a group of non-actors who are seeking the mysterious meanings and unknown fulfillments of the dramatic experience.
The Village Voice annointed Annie Baker's comedy its Obie (off-broadway) award this year for best new American play and gave another Obie to the cast for their ensemble work. So you can expect an amusing evening when you stop by the Hyde Park Theatre to see them do their second play this year by the 29-year-old Annie B. They delivered her Body Awareness just this past April. Director Ken Webster and the gang like to …
Review: Body Awareness by Hyde Park Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on May 10, 2010
The real joke, and the one that makes this such an appealing play, is that the adults around Jarred don't have very clear answers to any of his questions.
Annie Baker's Body Awareness is a well crafted, attractive little comedy with lots of heart. I hadn't really expected that, for the Hyde Park style is more often sardonic, grimly humorous or menacing. After all, director Ken Webster had been using a publicity shot of the cast in which they looked as if they'd been arrested by the Austin Police Department at a wild party. Because of a trip out of town, my first chance …
Review: The Atheist by Hyde Park Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on February 20, 2010
The Atheist is billed as a "dark comedy," but it is no barrel of laughs. In fact, there are virtually no laughs at all in Joey Hood's intense, two-act 90-minute performance.
Sleazy, pushy Augustine Early is the just the sort of brilliant sociopath that fascinates Ken Webster, judging from the programming at the Hyde Park Theatre.The Atheist is billed as a "dark comedy," but it is no barrel of laughs. In fact, there are virtually no laughs at all in Joey Hood's intense, two-act 90-minute performance. If it's a comedy at all, it's a sardonic comedy, in the etymological sense: from 1630–40<>sardoni(us) (<>sardónios of Sardinia) + …