Recent Reviews
Review: Stay by Wimberley Players
by Michael Meigs
Published on September 17, 2013
STAY is a concept piece, a one-trick pony that can be made to work by talented director David McCullars, his capable cast, and the Players' fine technical support.
The Wimberley Players give Sheila Cowley's Stay a quality production with a strong cast and superb production values. This piece by the Florida playwright had its premiere with the Players Theatre in Sarasota, and its transfer between local theatres ready to try out new work is an encouraging sign that not all such venues are in lockstep with the likes of Arsenic and Old Lace, Neil Simon and the Texas gothic comedies of Jones, Hope …
Review: Art Show/Model Show by Paper Chairs
by David Glen Robinson
Published on September 03, 2013
The models who created this show classify it as documentary theatre. They have a video record of their topic much more extensive than the images shown in the performance. They have identified and developed a powerful topic and a bold presentation.
A Participating Artist's Impressions The artists stood at easels or sat at drawing tables in the well of the theatre, downstage center, or more aptly, house center. The stage was multilevel, rising before us and offering sightlines better than in most figurative art workshops. The lighting on the models was also much better than in any workshop. My choice of oil on canvas as the medium ensured no relaxation on my part. I sweated and …
Review: Zeus in Therapy by Tutto Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on August 23, 2013
Director Gary Jaffe and friends do the playwright full justice, and they grace us all with their version of the ancient Greek concept of mimesis, the concept that works of art are to be understood as models for beauty, truth and the good.
Tutto Theatre's Zeus in Therapy by the late UT classics professor Douglass Stott Parker is dazzling, and at times, as his brilliant wordplay coincides with the gesturing and capering of the astonishing Greek chorus, it is simply stunning. 'Stunning' is a word thrown about lightly in the casual talk of our day. But I mean it literally. The brilliance, complexity and sheer entertainment value of this staging and this cast is sufficient to blow your …
Review: The Motherfucker with the Hat by Capital T Theatre
by David Glen Robinson
Published on August 20, 2013
“Love conquers all” is the phrase for Jackie --and it certainly conquered him.
Capital T Theatre’s production of The Motherfucker with the Hat (TMFWTH) by Stephen Adly Guirgis fairly screamed “exploitation!” in its promise -- or rather, warning -- of foul language and nudity. As usual , the reality escaped the hype in unpredictable ways. TMFWTH was a far more serious play than its unfortunate title suggested. The story of TMFWTH was fairly direct. Jackie (J. Ben Wolfe) comes home to the apartment he shared with his love, …
Review: The Motherfucker with the Hat by Capital T Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on August 20, 2013
The conclusion of the action is logical, very nearly inevitable, and arises directly from Jackie's inner flaws -- qualities and outcome that correspond very closely to the Aristotelian criteria for tragedy.
Let's get right down to that title. The expletive noun is one of the most offensive combinations in the English language, and many of us get a sharp visceral twinge seeing it used in the title of Guirgis's play. The noun and variants of its subsidiary combinant verb are also among the most common oral expressions in the English language, especially in American parlance. Words are powerful, especially when they evoke taboos. Publications and individuals …
Review: Three, or the Sound of the Great Existential Nothingness by Breaking String Theater
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on August 05, 2013
“People don’t want what you want,” Andre comments to Olga in a half-dismissive and half pleading tone, This ironically sums up the positions of all the characters in the play: ironically, because none of them can admit or even be sure of what they really want.
What Philosophers Call It A pause button. Many wish for it and none achieve it. Many of life’s moments skyrocket past us with meteor-like frenzy. Some we miss altogether, because we were simply too wrapped up in, well, what we consider to be life. Vonnegut fantasizes about something similar in Slaughterhouse Five: the ability to stretch time out like taffy, look at each and every important moment from our past, and understand how they brought …