Recent Reviews
Review: Bodas de Sangre (Blood Wedding) by Wondrous Strange Players
by Michael Meigs
Published on September 14, 2011
The Wondrous Strange Players deliver a challenging and intense evening with this piece. The narrative style is relatively ghostly ghouly, along the Halloween traditions of local theatre, but that is consistent with their own history.
From Andalucía to Appalachia via Austin The Wondrous Strange Players have evolved and developed in Darwinian fashion despite the difficulties of schisms, bootstrapping and homelessness, and they now occupy a real theatrical space at the cavernous Community Renaissance Market at William Cannon and Westgate. They're still staging in the western corridor of what used to be an Albertson's grocery store, but they've acquired tall black drapes, rigging, and simple lighting instruments sufficient to turn …
Review: Hair by City Theatre Company
by Michael Meigs
Published on September 02, 2011
But on the evidence of the City Theatre production, Hair reveals itself principally to be about sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll, to quote Ian Drury and the Blockheads (1977). And I like it.
City Theatre's production of the 1968 musical Hair is easy to look at, lively, familiar and loud, all of which qualities I consider to be virtues. For someone who knew every note of the 1967 cast album but had never seen it on stage, City's Hair was like a binge on vanilla Oreos. Jeff Hinkle, his four choreographers and that enthusiastic cast of twenty actor-singers keep the stage full and lively almost non-stop. They out-do Ringling Brothers, Barnum …
Review: A Midsummer Night's Dream by Weird Sisters Women's Theater Collective
by Michael Meigs
Published on August 25, 2011
The real stand-out, however, is the doyenne of this collective, Susan Gayle Todd. Aptly, she is Peter Quince the carpenter, the captain of this imaginary company of rude mechanicals.
Once a year, a theatre production of the Weird Sisters Collective briefly appears like a friendly comet in the Austin evenings. Like comets, they're "wanderers," at least in recent years -- you need to be alert for news of them each July or August, because the venues for their productions have changed from year to year. They had planned to do the Jacobean drama The Roaring Girl by Dekker and Middleton, under the guidance of their …
Review: Hamlet (Austin Drama Club 6th version) by Austin Drama Club
by Brian Paul Scipione
Published on August 22, 2011
Austin Drama Club’s sixth production of Hamlet is not only a look at the characters' individual mental breakdowns but also a nod at the group’s own journey.
An Unweeded Garden: Austin Drama Club’s 6thProduction of Hamlet Many will argue in favor of a favorite song or play is but few will put their money on what is the best. It is easiest to pinpoint what is the ultimate movie or band when one is, say, a freshman in college. Shakespeare is the best writer! Death Cab for Cutie is the most sublime band ever! Dostoevsky has captured the true infirmity of …
Review: The Servant of Two Masters by Penfold Theatre Company
by Michael Meigs
Published on August 19, 2011
This is a zippy, funny, fast confection, with all the energy of improv and the grace of comic ballet. It's not a musical, although a rank of musicians provide incidental accompaniment. Words and gags fly like Frisbees.
I always enjoy watching the handsome and talented Penfold Theatre folk. Not only onstage in their accomplished presentations, of which The Servant of Two Masters directed by Beth Burns is only the latest shining example, but also as with considerable skill they build their presence and reputation. Austin attracts graduates of theatre programs the way that Nashville attracts banjo pickers, and with not much effort I could name you half a dozen groups of friends who …
Review: The Green Bird by Adriana Montenegro
by Michael Meigs
Published on August 16, 2011
Adriana Montenegro's version at the Cathedral of Junk won't win awards in those categories, for it has the cheerfully conspiratorial feeling of just what it is: a group of friends who've decided to put on a play at a really funky location.
Adriana Montenegro and friends have a good time presenting The Green Bird at the Cathedral of Junk at 4422 Lareina Street in South Austin. If you like many others in Austin haven't visited Vince Hanneman's towering backyard construction of strangeness, this free show for Thursday through Saturday evenings would be an apt occasion to repair your shortcoming in Austin lore. Artist/proprietor Hanneman has hosted theatre events before, including notably the annual theatrical comedy by the Weird …