Recent Reviews
Review: Sagittarius Ponderosa by Austin Rainbow Theatre (ART)
by Michael Meigs
Published on October 23, 2025
In our divisive times, Austin Rainbow Theatre's choice of Kaufman's warm but unsentimental family portrait is both entertaining and consoling.
Austin Rainbow Theatre's Sagittarius Ponderosa is a slightly eerie, entrancing portrait of a multigenerational family living in a forested area that could well be enchanted. Playwright MJ Kaufman's story is dream-like, and director Adam Adolfo endows it with fluidity and grace. The family of protagonist Archer (née Angela) is revealed around a symbolic Thanksgiving table, and each member takes a turn identifying something for which he/she/they is/are thankful. They're an agreeably quirky bunch. Though we …
Review: The Heart Sellers by Austin Playhouse
by Vanessa Hoang Hughes
Published on October 21, 2025
In ninety minutes the audience in the small studio space becomes fast friends with two recent immigrants from Asia, sharing laughter and catharsis.
When two lonely strangers in 1973 decide to spend their Thanksgiving together, a sentimental night of newfound friendship ensues. The Heart Sellers tells the story of Jane and Luna, two Asian immigrant women who spend a night sharing tales of love, womanhood, and belonging. Lloys Suh’s script debuted in 2023. Ten productions in the 2024-2025 season made it one of the most produced plays in the United States. Alexa Capareda is Luna, the extroverted hostess …
Review #2 of 2: Mirror Lake by Jarrott Productions
by Michael Meigs
Published on October 21, 2025
Savor your shivers, admire this handsome couple, wish them the best; Mirror Lake offers them opportunity but also the perils of the best of intentions.
It's spooky scary season, y'all. Jarrott Productions chose Steven Dietz's two-hander Mirror Lake to fit the season. Director Caroline Cearley makes the most of the intimate space at the Trinity Street Players' space in central Austin, and MacKenzie Mulligan's lighting is appropriately dark and suddenly spotted with reveals. It's a tale of a couple married now for ten years who have the custom of trying to scare one another witless on their anniversary. They travel …
Review #1 of 2: MIRROR LAKE by Steven Dietz, Jarrott Productions
by David Glen Robinson
Published on October 21, 2025
This suspense thriller with inflections of horror features brilliant dialogists and movers, Juliet Robb especially.
Fear of the dark. Fear of the unknown. Fear of what’s outside. Fear of hunters. Fear of confinement. Fear of what’s in the box. Fear of your spouse. Fear of the fog. Fear of dark, murky waters . . . .These fears may seem archetypal, but they are only the playing pieces of the marital game Philip and Dinah play on their wedding anniversary every year, ten so far. Jarrott Productions has premiered Mirror Lake, …
Review: 'Night, Mother by Alchemy Theatre Company, Austin
by Michael Meigs
Published on October 19, 2025
Rich in emotion and ultimately heart-rending, Alchemy Theatre's 'NIGHT, MOTHER is far more than a message play. It examines reasons to live and reasons to leave this existence.
I can't go on. I won't go on. Spoken out against difficulty and pain and the enigma of Why must I be here?, those statements convey entirely different messages. I can't is a wearied cry against a life perceived as meaningless, a collapsing into inertia. I won't is defiance and determination to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing, end them. The theme is as ancient as literature. Socrates and hemlock; Hamlet …
Review: SPEAK NO MORE: CONTAGION by La Fenice
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on October 18, 2025
Definitely an enjoyable night of theater, like watching a rock and roll concert in a foreign language: visceral, experiential, and utterly incoherent.
La Fenice (Italian for The Phoenix) was originally founded in 1999 as the Austin Commedia Society. They are a modern commedia dell'arte troupe based on Italian theatrical convention that originated more than five hundred years ago. Commedia dell'arte (roughly, comedy of professional artists) is known for combing scripted and improvised elements, physical comedy, stock scenarios, and archetypical or even stereotypical characters. It was often done with satirical intent, most often taking aim at class hierarchy. …