Recent Reviews
Review: As You Like It by Scottish Rite Theater
by Michael Meigs
Published on August 10, 2009
No tears, no swashbuckling, lots of laughter at human folly -- this is a captivating night of amusements.
As You Like It is one of the gentlest and most whimsical of Shakespeare's works, a playful edifice built on oppositions.The court versus the forest, autocratic brothers excluding their less influentialbrothers; lovers vying in vain for their ladies and, inevitably, a fair maid cross-dressing as a fair youth. An aged servant finances with his last savings the flight into the forest of his impetuous young master. That master braves a fight for the sake of his ancient …
Review: Richard III by Austin Drama Club
by Michael Meigs
Published on August 09, 2009
Julio Mella and the Austin Drama Club have translated Richard's evil into quaint modern terms -- modern, in that the early twentieth century setting is almost within living memory, and quaint, because the story mirrors popular fictions, further reinforced by the Godfather novels and movies.
He was standing at the gate when I walked up. East 7th and Concho. This looked like the place."Is this where the play is?"He looked me over. "Yeah. Go ahead. The house is open."Yes, it was open. And it was a house. Dark inside, with rough fabric curtains hanging between the entry and the kitchen, and then between the kitchen and the living area. Cooler this time, with an air conditioner laboring away in the depths …
Review: House of Several Stories by Imagine That Productions
by Michael Meigs
Published on August 07, 2009
Boulanger's achievement both as playwright and director is that he starts with loud chaos, exaggeration and absurdity, and he gradually endows his characters and his story with humanity and depth.
Think Bart Simson meets Betty Crocker on LSD, with a confident cast and decisive playwright/director who steer a comedy of infantile, broken characters through ambiguous plots and overlapping time to crisis and a touching resolution. House of Several Stories, John Boulanger's MFA project at Texas State, had a reading at the university and played for just a flicker of time in early October, 2008 at the Blue Theatre in Austin. In April it won the Kennedy …
Review: Little Shop of Horrors by SummerStock Austin
by Michael Meigs
Published on August 06, 2009
SummerStock's joyous production of Little Shop of Horrors gets extra class credit in recognition for its part in re-Americanizing this reviewer.
SummerStock's joyous production of Little Shop of Horrors gets extra class credit in recognition for its part in re-Americanizing this reviewer.After last May's production of the same script by the Georgetown Palace Theatre, I took the liberty to grump that theirs was a "Grade A production of a Grade D musical play."I did explain that unlike the rest of the audience, I had never been exposed to Audreys 1 or 2, either on film or in the …
Review: Good Night Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet by The Weird Sisters Women's Theater Collective
by Michael Meigs
Published on August 05, 2009
Leslie Guerrero as the prologue invited us to exercise our imaginations and to go with the ride, and quite a ride it was.
The Weird Sisters Theatre Collective's Goodnight Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet was a very Austin event. The Sisters performed Anne-Marie MacDonald's broad feminist satire of Shakespeare and stuffy scholars in the backyard at the one and only Cathedral of Junk in South Austin, just a few blocks south of 290W/Ben White Boulevard. Closing night last Saturday was full, as a wide mix of folks filled up the very miscellaneous and inventive collection of chairs. Proprietor Vince Hannemann was rustling up seats …
Review: Richard III by Shakespeare at Winedale
by Michael Meigs
Published on August 04, 2009
Cody Chua seduces the audience with his confident ease on the stage. As Richard, he knows that he is acting; as the actor playing Richard he is at home with all those eyes upon him.
Shakespeare at Winedale is most of the way through its July 16 - August 9 summer season of three plays done by students accepted for its "Shakespeare boot camp." Those of us who attended last Saturday afternoon's performance of Richard III saw the cast gather in a circle and heard them chanting vocal exercises, a prep to get the blood racing for their performance.The barn at Winedale has been the performance locale since 1970. One is reminded …