Recent Reviews
Review: Love Me AND An Empty Stage by Austin Community College
by Michael Meigs
Published on July 25, 2009
A Twitter resumé might read, "Crippled and haunted by war, great suffering artist Oskar is jilted by Alma Mahler; falls for life-size surrogate doll, destroys it at orgy."
Austin Community College's summer 2009 Experimental Student Performance Lab got off to a good start for me with Philip Kreyche's expressionistic two-act work Love Me, preceded by Ryan Manning's whimsical curtain-raiser The Empty Stage. Manning's short piece gives us Dani Miller as "Pye, the Man with No Memory," and Manning himself as "Que, The Man Who Reminds Him." Imagine Estragon and Vladimir, respectively, except that instead of waiting for Godot, they're trying to construct a story for …
Review: Rabbit Hole by Dancing Cat Circle
by Michael Meigs
Published on July 14, 2009
This is a delicate exploration of grief and healing, poignant and sometimes comic. Rachel McGinnis as Becca is subtle, perceptive, at times luminescent.
Rabbit Hole by David Linday-Abaires is a quiet play about loss. Becca and Howie were young parents six months ago when a swift series of random events sent their four-year-old son Danny running after his dog, just as a teenager drove down the street going maybe just a tiny bit too fast.That back story is not shoved into your face. The action opens as Becca's loud, impulsive sister Izzy is sitting at Becca's kitchen table, telling …
Review: An Inspector Calls by Different Stages
by Michael Meigs
Published on July 11, 2009
Peters' Inspector Goole is properly spectral in aspect, conduct and reproach. He unleashes a moral questioning in this milieu, one that remains alive more with some -- the young and previously thoughtless Sheila, for one -- than with others.
Under the artistic direction of Norman Blumensaadt, Different Stages and its predecessor the Small Potatoes Theatre Company have furnished Austin Theatre with a considerable library of stage work. The back page of the program for An Inspector Calls lists 109 productions the company has brought to the boards since 1981.Different Stages has given the city a good dose of the classics and a wide array of works from the British and European stages. The company has often reached back …
Review: No Exit by Poison Apple Initiative
by Michael Meigs
Published on July 05, 2009
Rommel Sulit was syllable-clear throughout, but I foundthat Helyn Rain Messenger and, to a lesser extent, Jen Brown were not inflecting their texts sufficiently to establish beats of action.
With a sort of purposeful negligence, I have long avoided some of the leading French writers of the twentieth century. Existentialism enjoyed a vogue both in literature and in philosophy when I was at university, but I didn't care for its dour aspects. Mine was a deliberately uninformed prejudice, the sort that is likely to perpetuate itself comfortably for a lifetime. Less than a decade after that, we lived for two difficult years in Oran, Algeria, …
Review: Teacher, Teacher by Loaded Gun Theory
by Michael Meigs
Published on July 03, 2009
The setting recalls many another farce, movie or situation comedy set in a work environment. Define your characters, set 'em to bounce off one another under stress, give 'em unexpected surprises, and let it rip.
Max Langert writes dialogue that pops and crackles, not just for the jokes but also because it springs from the characters. They speak to one another in the quick shorthand of coworkers under stress. Folks who know one another, perhaps too well. They can telegraph their messages, and they can needle one another persistently in an effort to keep a chaotic situation on track. There's no time or patience for introspection in the teachers' lounge …
Review: Rooms, a re-imagning of Chekhov's 'The Three Sisters' by Secondhand Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on June 28, 2009
Rooms was an unexpected opportunity to inhabit Chekhov's 'The Three Sisters' on Sunday evenings in June. The announcement -- more of an invitation, really -- was to visit the Prozorov family at their estate, between Acts II and III of 'The Three Sisters.'
Rooms was an unexpected opportunity to inhabit Chekhov's The Three Sisters for a short time on Sunday evenings in June. The announcement -- more of an invitation, really -- was to visit the Prozorov family at their estate, between Acts II and III of The Three Sisters. Perhaps this piece originated as exercises for the MFA program at the University of Texas. We have seen each of these six vibrant actors elsewhere in town, both in UT productions and elsewhere, …