Recent Reviews
Review: Spirits to Enforce by Capital T Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on January 26, 2011
And just about the time that we begin to understand that they're seeking this money for a theatrical production, for chrissakes, The Pleaser makes the big step: he offers to reveal to the prospective patron on the other end of the line his Secret Identity!!
With 12 superheroes on stage, who ya gonna call? I picked over the suite of portraits at Capital T Theatre's website and I was seriously tempted by blonde Jenny Gravenstein with the come-hither eyes as The Page, particularly since Capital T is using her for one of its promo posters. That would be a sexist indulgence in fantasy, though, so I settled on Austin newcomer Jay Fraley, who mans the central slot at the phone bank …
Review: Planet of the Mermaids by Electronic Planet Ensemble
by Michael Meigs
Published on January 25, 2011
David Jewell's laconic verse and wryly reflective spoken images open your mind up the way a mild dose of psylocbin might do, while your autonomous nervous system grasps that rock 'n' roll sound track.
Electronic Planet Ensemble is the group of Austin cool rockers who invented the "music of the spheres" genre. Like the earth itself, they come orbiting through the Vortex once a year with another adventure in space and time. In January 2009 it was Spaceman Dada Robot; in January 2010 it was Surfin' UFO. In October 2009, breaking that pattern with a bit of space-time insouciance, they sailed by in a reprise of their In.Car.Nation, a rumbling hymn to classic …
Review: A Samuel Beckett Cabaret by FronteraFest
by Michael Meigs
Published on January 22, 2011
A Samuel Beckett Cabaret is a nerve-straining, delicious, in-your-face examination of memory, human fraility and theatre itself.
With no particular fanfare, Rick Roemer is offering you the chance to understand the stretch and diversity of the art of the professional actor. But just for a brief shining moment, so check your agenda. Roemer appears in these stark pieces by Samuel Beckett this afternoon, Tuesday evening the 25th and Sunday afternoon the 30th. As the complement, you can appreciate his appearance as the haughty, comic Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest four …
Review: Lost Land by Wogglebug Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on January 22, 2011
Jenny Kokai's Lost Land is engaging and entertaining but unfocussed, a multifold parable in which a sunken fiberglass whale is the narrator.
Jenny Kokai's Lost Land is engaging and entertaining but unfocussed, a multifold parable in which a sunken fiberglass whale is the narrator. Four stories are anchored at one place: "Lost Land," a lake at the center of a Disney-style theme park. The stories are widely separated in time. The unseen leviathan narrator speaks either from outside time or from some date far in the future. Fred Bothwell is the voice of "Moby," a resigned, lightly humorous …
Profile and Video: Trouble Puppet's RIDDLEY WALKER, a Work in Progress
by Michael Meigs
Published on January 21, 2011
Hopkins warned us that Hoban writes the tale in an imagined future jargon that initially may appear obscure. "Read it out loud," he suggested. "And after the first five pages or so, you'll have no trouble at all."
Connor Hopkins and the gang at Trouble Puppet Theatre Company invited their e-list followers over to the Salvage Vanguard Theatre studio on two Saturday nights, January 8 and 15, to get a look at their works in progress. The evening began with The Red Tree, one of several pieces developed in Caroline Reck's "Object Theatre Workshop" and moved to several scenes the company has roughed out for the production of Riddley Walker scheduled for September - October of …
Review: Humble Boy by Different Stages
by Michael Meigs
Published on January 18, 2011
Playwright Jones creates vivid characters and director Jonathan Urso runs them through amusing clashes and quirky incidents, including a grimly funny series of missteps with the ashes of the late lamented James Humble.
Tom Stephan is a revelation in Different Stages' Humble Boy by Charlotte Jones, playing through the end of the month at the City Theatre. In Austin Shakespeare's production of The Tempest last September he was a dismayed and battered King Alonso of Naples, cast ashore in the opening scene and awkwardly penitent in Act V. Here, as Felix Humble, the title character of Jones' sardonic social comedy, Stephan is vividly alive, so inventive and subtle of gesture and …