Recent Reviews
Review: Tender Rough Rough Tender by Sarah Saltwick, groundswell at the Off Center
by David Glen Robinson
Published on August 23, 2015
The actors are intense and spot-on in their characterizations. Joseph Garlock plays Mike with a sweet center appropriate to the character, when he could have played it all muscle. Hannah Burkhauser definitely has a huge emotional range.
The Fourth of July, 2011, in Austin was incredibly hot, fireworks were banned, the Bastrop Lost Pines burned down that summer, and restaurants charged for ice water, but only if patrons requested it. This is the atmosphere of the incredibly hot Tender Rough Rough Tender by Sarah Saltwick, now playing at The Off-Center in east Austin. The sit-com joke of taking cold drinks by throwing them in one’s own face rather than swallowing them is …
Review: The Tree Play by Robi Polgar
by David Glen Robinson
Published on August 12, 2015
A new work in the form of a stage ritual and composite documentary on rain forest and habitat destruction, Robi Polgar's THE TREE PLAY is an artful continuation of consciousness raising in Austin and the world.
The ambitious Austin-grown theatre show The Tree Play is just finishing up its premiere run at the new Ground Floor Theatre on the east side. It's a new work in the form of a stage ritual and composite documentary on rain forest and habitat destruction around the world. Robi Polgar authored the script that ties the diverse elements together in a clear narrative thread. The play is an artful continuation of consciousness raising in Austin and the world. …
Review: Love! Valour! Compassion! by City Theatre Company
by David Glen Robinson
Published on August 10, 2015
All these characters have immense heart, even if some are less revealing than others; this quality makes this play a mighty work that speaks to the human condition to a degree perhaps greater than any other play of the last twenty years.
City Theatre has, once again, proved itself a leader on the Austin east side theatre scene. Love! Valour! Compassion!, is a production second to none -- Off-Broadway or anywhere where. Expectations in the Austin theatre community for Terence McNally’s play were sky-high. It won the Tony Award for Best Play in 1995 and other awards, and City Theatre has made itself a reputation of including bold and meaningful modern dramas in its agreeably diverse programing. …
Review: Tartuffe by Vortex Repertory Theatre
by David Glen Robinson
Published on August 02, 2015
The all-teenage cast is fearless, they know their lines, they’re clear even when shouting, they dance sharply and well, and thus armed they dive straight into the world’s foremost play about hypocrisy and deception.
We’ve entered Austin’s hot summer of theatre. Get involved, there’s Zach Theatre’s Duke Ellington’s Sophisticated Ladies, the experimental and satisfying MAST at Salvage Vanguard Theatre, three musicals by Summer Stock Austin at the Long Center, Hairspray at Zilker Hillside Theatre, Terence McNally’s Love! Valour! Compassion! at City Theatre, 7 Towers’ Closer at the Dougherty Arts Center, and the new original The Tree Play by old Austin hand Robi Polgar coming soon to Ground Floor Theatre. And …
Review: Guys and Dolls by SummerStock Austin
by David Glen Robinson
Published on July 28, 2015
This is a production for the friends and families of the large cast and crew of the show, and they have a right to be thrilled and satisfied with this showing of a canonical Broadway and Hollywood musical.
Summer stock is theatre camp for musical theatre students and emerging professionals. Directors Michael McKelvey and Ginger Morris remain true to the concept in their production of Guys and Dolls.Their educational efforts over the years are laudable, but audience expectations for Guys and Dolls are sky-high, and any stock production put together in two weeks or so can hardly hope to meet even the most forgiving, reined-in expectations. Guys and Dolls is a …
Review: MAST by Paper Chairs
by David Glen Robinson
Published on July 27, 2015
Avoiding the overused theme of the scattering of lives in global war, Elizabeth Doss uses the ocean as her overarching metaphor. Lives drift, drown, sail or find new lands.
The Paper Chairs theatre collective has a reputation for innovative and experimental productions. In almost six years of existence the company has gained skill and recognition in the Austin theatre scene, and MAST by Artistic Director Elizabeth Doss may prove to be its strongest edge-dancing production yet, and artfully produced. The play has at its core incidents and relationships in Doss’s family tree in World War II and the generation that followed, but one …