Recent Reviews
Review: The Elephant Man by Emily Ann Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on February 04, 2010
The confinement of the playing space emphasizes the confinement of the characters -- not only that of Merrick in his lamed body and hospital refuge but also those constraints placed upon others by their social roles and their institutions.
Director Bridget Farias and the EmilyAnn Theatre crew in Wimberley are running The Elephant Man Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays for four weekends in January and February, an intrepid undertaking for a community-based arts group in a town with a population of only about 4,000. More impressive than their raw courage in taking on a tough script and slow-motion tragedy is the fact that they carry it out with grace and depth. The company creates a protected time and …
Review: Misalliance by Austin Playhouse
by Michael Meigs
Published on February 03, 2010
Shaw sends a grand surprise into the middle of the long weekend : a two-passenger aeroplane that crash lands onto the nearby greenhouse. What a machina ex deos!
Is it only coincidence that Austin theatre is staging a rolling centenary celebration of George Bernard Shaw? Not of his birth or death -- we'd have to wait another forty or so years for either of those, since the man lived well into his 90's --but of his plays exploring matrimony.In late 2008 Different Stages gave us a twinkling production of Shaw's 1908 comedy Getting Married and now Austin Playhouse is offering Misalliance, first staged in 1910. Despite their …
Review: Stuck on GeeDot by Generic Ensemble Company
by Michael Meigs
Published on January 30, 2010
La'arni Ayuma and Saray de Jesus play remarkably true to Beckett's dour comedy and prickly humor, while altering the text and dialogues completely.
Their choice of a company name offers a hint of the deadpan drollery of their approach to art and to the audience. In a town that whelps new theatre companies as if it were a puppy mill, these young women label themselves the "generic ensemble company."Generic as in "common" and "absolutely typical" or as in "no longer under patent" or, reaching a bit, as in "an embodiment of an abstract ideal." And generic as in …
Review: Seamstress by FronteraFest
by Michael Meigs
Published on January 29, 2010
Melanie Dean is charming and reassuring, as she's fretting with notions both visible and invisible. Fussing about the shop ,she chats to the spectators, stand-ins for the apparently silent client.
Is it ethical for a theatre journalist to accept a cookie from an actress in mid-performance?How about if everyone in the audience has a chance at the home baked goods, because Melanie Dean has handed front-row spectators two big plastic bowls filled with cookies?There were lots left when the bowl came along the third row. I dipped in without compunction, happy to trust in Melanie's persona as the garrulous small-town Texas widow who has been …
Review: Dying City by Capital T Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on January 27, 2010
The back-and-forth of tense familiarity between Kelly and her brother Peter at times suggests a psychological ambush, at times a genuine reunion, and at times a therapy session.
Emptiness echoes from our first moments with Dying City.Motionless on the sofa, Liz Fisher as Kelly sits listening vacantly to Stephen Colbert's bright, acerbic chatter. She fingers a book; shifts her position; pushes at the stack of papers on the coffee table. An open cardboard box on the floor suggests packing or at least some interrupted task of organization. The buzzer sounds. Someone is downstairs and wants to come up. Dying City is not about Iraq. It's …
Review: Lady M by Texas State University
by Michael Meigs
Published on January 26, 2010
Smith-Rodriguez's Lady M is a serious and respectful piece, providing a credible back story. Recorded Scottish history was no great help, as the playwright notes in the program.
With the imagining of her piece Lady M Melissa Smith-Rodriguez explores the darkness of pre-history, of feudal Scots customs and of the perceived enigma of character of the leading woman in Shakespeare's Macbeth. This play is not an exculpation of Macbeth's unnamed lady but rather the creation of a fictional history explaining the woman's cold, fierce and ambitious nature.As a mantra and foreshadowing the playwright evokes the dark night of Act II, Scene 2 with Lady Macbeth's feverish comment," …