Reviews for The Vortex Performances

Review: The Dragonfly Princess by Vortex Repertory Theatre

Review: The Dragonfly Princess by Vortex Repertory Theatre

by David Glen Robinson
Published on April 20, 2023

Take advantage of the Vortex/Ethos cyber operas when you can; someday they may become as rare as the fairies at the bottom of your garden.

   “There are fairies at the bottom of our garden…” the song goes. But they are no fairies such as these I’ll warrant. Fairy mythology and the land of faery have taken many turns in literature and the arts, their baby-stealing propensities amplified in Changelings, produced at Salvage Vanguard Theatre several years back. But in the dark, gothic imagination of Chad Salvata the fairies have become more contradictory, at once monstrous, magical, loving, quarreling, self-serving, …

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Review: Selfie, the Musical by Vortex Repertory Theatre

Review: Selfie, the Musical by Vortex Repertory Theatre

by Rick Perkins
Published on April 11, 2022

The powerhouse band of four players and singers, along with the superb cast of four, made SELFIE, this grooving ensemble, rock the house at the Vortex in Austin!

  The title alone made me want to see this show. Got it. Selfies, we all have shared them, all too often. Just today at my weekly Friday meal with my golf buddies, I posted my lunch Especial of Chicken Enchiladas.  I was certain the world wanted to see how sophisticated and luxurious my measly wasted life is these days, hey looky: #Enchiladas, Livin’ Large, ya Losers! I felt victorious then; now I’m hiding in …

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Review #2 of 2: Heartland by Vortex Repertory Theatre

Review #2 of 2: Heartland by Vortex Repertory Theatre

by David Glen Robinson
Published on January 28, 2019

In the tradition of the best modern plays, HEARTLAND also tells several stories at the same time, tracks up-to-the-minute, and shows great heart. This latter quality is sure to make it evergreen.

Heartland, an important new play by Gabriel Jason Dean, is now up at the Vortex. The longish, heavily scripted work takes on geopolitics, especially the alt-tidal forces sweeping back and forth across Afghanistan and the United States. In the tradition of the best modern plays, Heartland also tells several stories at the same time, tracks up-to-the-minute, and shows great heart. This latter quality is sure to make it evergreen, some day to enter the canon.    The play is almost all …

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Review #1 of 2: Heartland by Vortex Repertory Theatre

Review #1 of 2: Heartland by Vortex Repertory Theatre

by Michael Meigs
Published on January 28, 2019

HEARTLAND is so exquisitely written, directed and acted that it's likely to sweep Austin theatre awards. See it, and give in to an evening that will take you out of yourself and into a better place.

Heartland is a small miracle of a play. Playwright Gabriel Jason Dean, aided by director Rudy Ramirez, reconciles the ache of loss by drawing a quiet, warm portrait of a chaste love affair in the impossible circumstances of Afghanistan and evoking those memories for us in the home of an ill and grieving father. They're memories of Getee, a U.S. citizen teacher murdered by the Taliban, and they belong to Nazrullah, a fellow teacher, and to …

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Review: Atlantis, a puppet opera by Vortex Repertory Theatre

Review: Atlantis, a puppet opera by Vortex Repertory Theatre

by David Glen Robinson
Published on September 11, 2018

Whether loose fantasia or a tale of history before history, ATLANTIS, A PUPPET OPERA offers an evening of soaring, magnificent operatic song and spectacle, enjoyable by families and all.

  Things that are unique are hard to describe because there is nothing else for comparison.The best approach to Atlantis: A Puppet Opera, now playing at The Vortex on Manor Road, is to call it a composite uniqueness and merely describe the parts.  The Ethos-created show was premiered at The Vortex in 2016, and its return has been eagerly awaited.  As before, the show is directed to perfection by Bonnie Cullum.     In Atlantis puppets …

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Review: 893/Ya-Ku-Za by Vortex Repertory Theatre

Review: 893/Ya-Ku-Za by Vortex Repertory Theatre

by Michael Meigs
Published on January 31, 2018

There's a great deal of watchful waiting in the dialogue between these two characters, so much so that I found myself imagining this piece as a Japanese film in black-and-white, framed principally in closeups

  The Generic Ensemble Company (GenEnCo) has mounted a starkly simple set on the Vortex Rep's inside stage, representing a private room in a Japanese restaurant or teahouse: sliding bamboo-and-paper partitions, mats, a low table and two cushions. By containing the hour-long performance of 893 YA-KU-ZA in this plain space, they're playing an evocative, reductionist game. Mia King and kt shorb meet here in an atmosphere of tense threat. King is Aya, female martial arts …

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