Reviews for Palindrome Theatre (2010-2013) Performances
Review: The Attic Space by Palindrome Theatre (2010-2013)
by Michael Meigs
Published on December 13, 2012
The Attic Space troubled me and haunted my wee hours; I wanted more from it. Thanks for the opportunity to be vexed!
Nigel, this is stupid stuff. There, now, I've said it. You and your friends of Palindrome have made arresting, sometimes astounding art in the three years that you promised yourselves for the experiment after your graduation from the theatre program at St. Ed's. You have shown yourself to be an impressive actor and promoter of our dear, beloved and commercially moribund art of live theatre, gathering award nominations and recognition along the way. …
Review: Accidental Death of an Anarchist by Palindrome Theatre (2010-2013)
by David Glen Robinson
Published on May 13, 2012
If you are considering going to live theatre as the antidote to the many unsatisfying and expensive pastimes out there, Palindrome’s The Accidental Death of an Anarchist is the first choice. Please find it and go.
The Up Collective is in one of my favorite places, in East Austin, specifically at 2326 E. Cesar Chavez St. The name is easy to get—one has to walk upstairs to a second floor gallery where the play is performed. The art on the walls is really, seriously good and is priced like it, too. Palindrome Theatre's set is simple, designed for mobility. It has two standing door frames with no doors, a table and …
Review: Hedda Gabler (for export) by Palindrome Theatre (2010-2013)
by Michael Meigs
Published on July 25, 2011
Robin Grace Thompson's Hedda is a fierce, intelligent, cornered creature, and we watch with fascination as she advances toward the ultimate, explosive ending of the play.
Austin's youngish Palindrome Theatre is on its way to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, to perform their new, 90-minute non-stop Hedda Gabler every afternoon from August 5 to 29, except for Wednesdays. Outside those office hours the six-member cast and associates will be free to immerse themselves in the largest international arts event around, now in its 74th year. Last year, for example, Edinburgh offered 2,453 different shows staging 40,254 performances by 21,148 performers in 259 venues. That's a …
Review: Hedda Gabler (adapted) by Palindrome Theatre (2010-2013)
by Michael Meigs
Published on March 05, 2011
Nigel O'Hearn faithfully follows the mechanics of Ibsen's intrigue in this version. His principal innovation is the pungent contemporary language he gives these characters.
Hedda Gabler puzzled and annoyed audiences across Europe when it was first staged in 1890 and 1891 -- pretty much the same reaction Ibsen had elicited with most of his later plays. He was 61 when he wrote this one, exasperated with the bourgeois public that went to the theatre and purchased copies of his plays. The last lines of the play are spoken by Judge Brack, that worldly sybarite who took Hedda's husband George …
Review: At Home at the Zoo by Palindrome Theatre (2010-2013)
by Michael Meigs
Published on November 12, 2010
Jude Hickey is the editor and Nigel O'Hearn is the intruder. You couldn't cast this piece any better, at least, not here in Austin.
Edward Albee once commented, "If you can sum a play in one sentence, that's how long the play should be." That's a fine bon mot and a cutting challenge to all who try to work in the odd art form of the theatre review. Albee has challenged and puzzled the public, the theatre community and academics since The Zoo Story, the second half of this theatre evening, first took the stage in Berlin 51 years ago. I have …
Review: Endgame by Palindrome Theatre (2010-2013)
by Michael Meigs
Published on January 21, 2010
Not comfortable. Not a rib-tickler. Endgame is, rather, a sour-sweet paradigm of the slow end of life, and those things we simple mortals do in our attempts to meet, understand, and delay the conclusion.
Palindrome Theatre takes you right out to the edge of the abyss with Samuel Beckett's Endgame: ninety minutes at the end of the world with four arresting characters who wrap up existence and the fitful light of human life.Endgame is grim, yes, but it's blazingly comic at times, as well. In the shadows of this basement room the ancient Nell shares a memory with her foolish senescent husband Nagg. "Nothing is funnier than unhappiness, I grant you that. But …