Recent Reviews
Review: Deus Ex Machina by Liz Fisher
by David Glen Robinson
Published on January 20, 2015
The oracle dance conveyed the outer excitement of the setting and the inner turmoil of the diverse characters tossed willingly within its circle of clairvoyant fire. This was brilliant choreography, flawlessly danced.
Whirligig Productions and playwright Liz Fisher seem to have turned a corner in theatre with their production of Deus ex Machina, now enjoying its spectacular premiere run at the Rollins Studio Theatre at the Long Center. The production is a new play by Fisher, her compound of the three plays in Aeschylus’ Oresteia, about the House of Atreus after the Trojan War. Her work also incorporates some of Sophocles’ and Euripides’ follow-on works (fan fiction?) …
Review: Mauritius by Theresa Rebeck, Different Stages
by Michael Meigs
Published on January 19, 2015
Different Stages' production of Mauritius is a crackerjack film noir, up close, live and in color.
Different Stages' production of Mauritius is a crackerjack film noir, up close, live and in color. Although there are three playing areas cursorily defined by Ann Marie Gordon's set on the City Theatre stage and the director chooses at times to leave two of them inhabited, the impression created by the clash of competing interests is that it's all taking place in one room. Perhaps in the claustrophobic room of the …
Review: Miracle on 34th Street by Penfold Theatre Company
by Michael Meigs
Published on December 10, 2014
Christmas and the holidays are a time for comfort. Jingle bells, tinsel on the tree, Santa Claus everywhere as image, in real life and in our imagination. We were far from the United States when our children were growing up, but we shared the joy and comfort of the season with VHS tapes of It's A Wonderful Life (1946) andMiracle on 34th Street (1947), both in glorious living black and white. I hadn't seen them …
Review: Cyrano de Bergerac by Austin Shakespeare
by Thomas Hallen
Published on December 07, 2014
Austin Shakespeare has a large burden to shoulder, and many expectations to live up to. Any city's primary Shakespeare theatre must do the Bard justice and provide enough variety for the Bard-averse. I saw Cyrano on the third Saturday and returned home to read the reviews, and I find I hotly disagree with all three that CTXLT has linked to. This review is both dissent and discussion of a major artistic product from a significant …
Review: Waiting for Lefty by Street Corner Arts
by Michael Meigs
Published on December 07, 2014
This isn't history. It's emotional time travel, back to the desperate depths of the mid-1930s when the near collapse of our economic system was grinding up honest working men and their families like hamburger. Street Corner Arts' blistering, riveting production at the Hyde Park Theatre puts the audience directly into a shabby union hall where drivers debate whether to go out on strike for wage hikes. In a series of scenes on that same platform, …
Review: Chicago
by Michael Meigs
Published on November 21, 2014
An enthusiastic voice behind us as we exited Bass Concert Hall at the University of Texas last night: "That was nothing like the movie!" Live performance, even in the cavernous space of the Bass, can seize your attention and send your heart racing in ways that no flat screen image ever can. And that's what happens in the 15th (annual?) tour of Chicago, playing in Austin through this coming Sunday. The story is familiar and, frankly, banal, a …