Recent Reviews
Review: The Whipping Man by The City Theatre Company
by David Glen Robinson
Published on February 17, 2014
Matthew Lopez’s esteemed play The Whipping Man takes on race, America’s central issue from Appomattox until now. The participation of Jewish Americans in slavery and emancipation puts a wry and tragic twist on it all. Director Stacy Glazer and Production Designer Andy Berkovsky deserve commendation from the git-go for their boldness in addressing issues that have been with us for millennia. The competent cast worked very hard to make this beast roar. Here’s the thing: all the …
Review: Othello by Austin Shakespeare
by Michael Meigs
Published on February 17, 2014
It is good -- very good -- to see Marc Pouhé back on the Austin stage. Tall, commanding, well-spoken and assured, he made a deep impression on theatre goers here back in 2008 and 2009 when appearing as Macbeth for Austin Shakespeare ("a formidable presence"), in The Three Sisters at Mary Moody Northen Theatre (anchoring "this lyric production. . . as a talkative, middle-aged lieutenant colonel. . . wistfully in love"), as a Dust Bowl preacher in the Zach Theatre's Grapes …
Review: Death of a Salesman by The Classic Theatre of San Antonio
by Michael Meigs
Published on February 12, 2014
Surely it was inevitable that San Antonio's ambitious Classic Theatre would eventually take on Miller's Death of a Salesman. No serious survey of twentieth-century American drama could overlook Miller's deeply felt examination of Willy Loman. An ordinary man, Willy suffers as his life spirit and life blood ebb away under the confusions of a more complex society and the changing concept of what it takes to be a 'winner' in America. Willy struggles to make the …
Review: The Liar by Austin Playhouse
by David Glen Robinson
Published on February 10, 2014
Playwright David Ives is surfing a crest of popularity in Austin and Texas, as his Venus in Fur closed its marvelous run two weeks ago at Austin Playhouse and continues to run in other Texas cities. Ives’ adaptation of The Liar has just opened at Austin Playhouse in Highland Mall, playing until March 9. Ives seems to specialize in fastening on works of literature and historical theatre and adapting them to contemporary tastes. Venus in Fur was structured as a …
Review: The Island of Dr. Moreau by FronteraFest
by Michael Meigs
Published on February 09, 2014
Vigorous, brash, opinionated and witty, Charles P. Stites would be an entertainment all by himself if you had regular access to him. He posts frequently on Facebook, celebrating books, poems, actors, artists, authors, incidents of daily life, Half Price Books, his favorite coffeeshop and family and friends. Actor and director, he has appeared on Austin stages (most recently in La Bute's Fat Pig and in Shakespeare's Coriolanus but earlier for City Theatre as Tartuffe and as the odious Ricky …
Review: 45 Degrees by TILT Performance Group
by Michael Meigs
Published on February 07, 2014
In the course of the hour's presentation this company of nine puzzled through life's enigmas, acted out their dreams and faced their fears. Movement was quick and assured, divided into six segments corresponding to the sides of the metaphorical box.
The titles were intriguing -- both that for the performance piece 45 degrees that was presented four times in association with the 2014 FronteaFest and that of the new company's name 'TILT Performance Group.' The conventions of geometry suggested that there would be something awry here, some difference not made explicit to the general public. Perhaps you needed to know the individuals or to have had dealings with their coordinators, actor-teachers Robert Pierson and Adam …