Recent Reviews
Muses IV: Memories of A House
by Michael Meigs
Published on September 10, 2010
Not until a 10-minute break after scene 4 did we study out the fact that in the first three vignettes we had viewed Denise the tippling therapist portrayed in turn, over the lapse of more than a year and in reverse chronological order, by Cathie Sheridan, Jen Brown and Kimberley Mead.
The Vestige Group's annual Muses performance in a private residence is a fun evening outing. It's a bit like supervised trick or treating, except that the ten encounters for your group of fewer than a dozen take place on the same property. And you're not in disguise; the actors are. The experience is designed for about 30 persons each night. We gathered on that big old porch for check-in as the evening shadows were gathering. Refreshments …
Review: Metamorphoses by Zach Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on September 06, 2010
Call this the Cirque de Soleil approach to Greek myth. . . .(In case you didn't catch it, the Apple computer represented Pandora's box, the one that unleashed evils on the world.)
Call this the Cirque de Soleil approach to Greek myth. From its 1996 origin at Northwestern University Mary Zimmerman's piece used a pool of water as its central metaphor -- suggesting the chaos at creation and both the life-giving and life-threatening qualities of water and the sea. At Northwestern the piece was staged next to and in an Olympic standard pool. The water setting was retained at the Lookingglass Theatre in Chicago and at the Circle …
Review: Into The Woods by City Theatre Company
by Michael Meigs
Published on September 02, 2010
Music director and production pianist David Blackburn's direction, dexterity and tireless fingers kept 'Into The Woods' springing forward from one surprise to another.
This energetic and clever staging of Stephen Sondheim's Into The Woods confirms for me once again my belief that Austin's City Theatre offers the best entertainment value for money available in the area today. Ours is an age of disclaimers, so let me be explicit, with a "claimer": I have been a fan of the City Theatre for more than two years. Andy Berkovsky and the artists working with him at the tidy little 85-seat theatre …
Review: The Last Days of Judas Iscariot by The Royal Pretenders
by Michael Meigs
Published on August 31, 2010
Playwright Steven Adly Guirgis takes a long time to set up the courtroom drama, a tiresomely predictable dramatic device. As in a slogging heavyweight title fight, some of the rounds are engaging and entertaining while others are lost time.
. . . or, perhaps, The Road to Salvation as imagined by Bart Simpson. The setting is a clichéd and unfunny take on the Day of Judgment, the plot's a mess, the characters are mostly caricatures, and The Last Days of Judas Iscariot was LONG -- close to three hours, including one intermission. A brilliant and moving play was hiding inside this mess, one that came clear in the concluding scenes, after the grunge and cuteness had …
Review: Early Girl by Paladin Theatre Company
by Michael Meigs
Published on August 26, 2010
'Early Girl' takes place in an eternal now. Kava has written a "chick play" in which the outside world is unexplained and largely unheeded.
Charlie Stites is a big guy with a big heart whose most recent stage outings have been as braggarts and sexual boasters. He counters that image somewhat with his intent to right the acting balance between the sexes by staging this drama by actress Carolyn Kava, done to respectful New York reviews in the mid-1980s. Stites writes in the program that he was struck "by the dearth of interesting parts available for [women]," making …
Review: The Fantasticks by Trinity Street Players
by Michael Meigs
Published on August 25, 2010
This attractive little show, minimal in props and effects but lively in music and clowning, played wonderfully well in the intimate, close-up space of the Trinity Street black box.
The Trinity Street Players call the third-floor theatre space at the First Baptist Church "the black box theatre." Now that I've attended three performances in that space, it seems to me that the appellation is a bit too generic. "Black box" suggests a void, perhaps one that's wrapped in mystery. A better reference for this long-running Theatre Ministry might be "jewel box." When we were living in Geneva, Switzerland, in the opening years …