Recent Reviews
Review: The Atheist by Hyde Park Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on February 20, 2010
The Atheist is billed as a "dark comedy," but it is no barrel of laughs. In fact, there are virtually no laughs at all in Joey Hood's intense, two-act 90-minute performance.
Sleazy, pushy Augustine Early is the just the sort of brilliant sociopath that fascinates Ken Webster, judging from the programming at the Hyde Park Theatre.The Atheist is billed as a "dark comedy," but it is no barrel of laughs. In fact, there are virtually no laughs at all in Joey Hood's intense, two-act 90-minute performance. If it's a comedy at all, it's a sardonic comedy, in the etymological sense: from 1630–40<>sardoni(us) (<>sardónios of Sardinia) + …
Review: The Dixie Swim Club by Sam Bass Community Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on February 20, 2010
What makes this production special is that it plays to the strengths of the informal, floating company constituting the Sam Bass Community Theatre. Like the Dixie Swim Club women, these women actors resonate as a group of friends.
The Sam Bass Community Theatre celebrates friendship and nostalgia in The Dixie Swim Club, by that clever trio of writers who dropped out of the big time to devote themselves to crafting vehicles for community theatres.Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten now have residences in Asheville NC and in New York City, according to their website. After careers in television and regional theatre, they hit gold with their 2005 North Carolina premiere of Dearly …
Review: Moonlight and Magnolias by Gaslight Baker Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on February 19, 2010
Gaslight Baker's production was one that had a bit of everything, with something for everyone -- clowning, film buff history, zooming egos and parodies of that beloved-for-all-time American film. Not much room -- or need -- for quiet reflection in this one!
Lots of folks turned out for the last Saturday night performance of Roy Hutchinson's Moonlight and Magnolias by the Gaslight Baker Theatre. Word of mouth had been at work down in Lockhart about this guys' screwball comedy. There is a dame in the cast. Esther Williams has only a few lines in her role as Miss Poppenghul, the earnest and attentive secretary to Hollywood producer David O. Selznick (David Schneider). Most of those are variations …
Review: Alice In Wonderland (SRT) by Scottish Rite Theater
by Michael Meigs
Published on February 18, 2010
The problem with nonsense, of course, is that it just doesn't make -- sense. Dear Alice faces enigma after enigma, encountering the most positively arbitrary personages the author could imagine.
Macey Mayfield with her china doll good looks and silvery little voice is a lovely match for the imaginary Alice whom Lewis Carroll sent off to Wonderland. Children's theatre in the style of the Scottish Rite Theatre requires of actors a special willingness and ability. The actors have their audience just two steps away, on mats spread in the wide open space at the center of the theatre. SRCT scripts pretty much banish the fourth …
Review: Macbeth by Austin Drama Club
by Michael Meigs
Published on February 17, 2010
An evening with the ADC is an eerie and sometimes confusing experience. This is a word-of-mouth world, where the ADC core is willing to share their experience only with those who are is really, really interested in seeking them out.
Sarah England's opening turn as the witch in Macbeth for Austin Drama Club felt so, so right. She's one witch for three, huddled over a trash can lit from below and sporadically spouting CO2 smoke. Her cutting voice and spooky moves make you understand that she believes, really believes that there is dark magic at work here.That belief is the underpinning for the Austin Drama Club, an almost inexplicable group of devotees to the dark …
Review: Peer Gynt by Mary Moody Northen Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on February 16, 2010
The dozen other members of the ensemble turn in the action like glittering, changing figures of a kaleidoscope, often singing commentary or accompanying themselves on guitar, violin, and clarinet.
You might get lost in the tidy space of St. Ed's Mary Moody Northen Theatre if you haven't done your homework before you get to the theatre. Peer Gynt is not your dependable old social realism from Ibsen. This story is a wild ride of fable, myth and allegory that takes you across the world and through an entire prankish life, written by a young dramatist who had escaped bleak Norway for the dazzling sunscapes …