Recent Reviews
Review: rain falls special on me by Ground Floor Theatre, Austin
by David Glen Robinson
Published on August 28, 2021
Wheelchair-bound, Mikey seems touched, creating a pseudo-home from nothing amid all his problems . . . but before long, we see that Mikey's only problem is that his heart is larger than his head.
After years waiting for the Covid 19 pandemic to blow through so we could go back to live theatre, rain falls special on me premiered at the prestigious Ground Floor Theatre on the east side. And Covid 19 hasn’t even blown through yet. The play is a literary telling of homeless stories through six human characters and one dog character. All seven are homeless and needed to address the hydra we label homelessness before …
Review: In The Ether by ARCOS Dance
by David Glen Robinson
Published on August 19, 2021
The graphics were spectacular, and the semiotics, the directions by sign and symbol through the livestream, were consistent and intelligently forgiving. ARCOS moves actively toward an ever more complex hybrid world.
The central motif of the livestreaming performance of In The Ether was two concentric black and white circles, unadorned but otherwise reminiscent of 1950s TV registrations. They pulsed, grew, shrank, hypnotized, and otherwise drew us into a sequence of dance and performance imagery arranged and manipulated on a series of webpages. The circles came back between segments, leading us through cyberspace. They were our robot guides, more so than the dreamy young human face …
Review: Faraway, So Close by Ishida Dance Company
by David Glen Robinson
Published on August 16, 2021
This company is so devoted to conveying realities that their attack with intent, purpose, and love takes the audience to new places in their own minds and hearts.
Most of the elements of Faraway, So Close were delayed in showing one way or another by the pandemic lockdown suffered by most of the world. ISHIDA Dance has been centered in Austin only since 2019, and thus remains a very new dance company in our community. In our time of breakthrough viral infections, ISHIDA Dance’s show at the Dell Fine Arts Center at St. Andrew’s in far west Austin was one of breakthrough artistic …
Review: Much Ado about Nothing AND Midsummer Night's Dream
by Michael Meigs
Published on July 17, 2021
What better way to explode out of careful COVID quarantine of sixteen months than by taking TWO Shakespeare works, back to back over a single weekend, both of them comfortably outdoors?
What better way to explode out of careful COVID quarantine of sixteen months than by taking TWO Shakespeare works, back to back over a single weekend, both of them comfortably outdoors? That was my celebration last weekend. Austin Shakespeare's summer youth troupe did Much Ado about Nothing at the quarter-sized Elizabethan replica Curtain Theatre on the shore of the Colorado, and Leander's Way Off Broadway Community Theatre presented A Midsummer Night's Dream at Smooth …
Review: Greater Tuna by Georgetown Palace Theatre
by Justin M. West
Published on June 18, 2021
While Rick Felkins and Kirk Kelso are hilarious, to some I fear that GREATER TUNA may simply be “funny because it’s true” and do little to inspire the reflection that satire demands.
If one were to measure the success of the Georgetown Palace Playhouse Stage’s production of Greater Tuna only on “laughs per minute” - an old goalpost-setting comedy adage and one this show typically boasts with pride - the performance I saw last week would already be a huge success. From the moment the lights dimmed and the voices of Thurston Wheelis (Rick Felkins) and Arles Struvie (Kirk Kelso) of “Radio OKKK, broadcasting at a …
Review 2 of 2: Austin Dance Festival 2021 - Dance on Film
by David Glen Robinson
Published on June 06, 2021
All the devices, techniques, and magic of cinema could be woven into the imagery of dance in these filmed selections from across the world . Shakespeare never said, “All the world’s a location for film” -- but this year’s selectees might believe that bent aphorism.
The culmination of Austin Dance Festival 2021 was Dance on Film, the innovative program of the Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company to present selected global dance films to Austin audiences. Unlike the canceled 2020 Austin Dance Festival, the 2020 Dance on Film program was presented in November of last year, safely under outdoor covid protocols at Rocket Cinema in Moody Meadow. This year’s edition returned joyously to the same venue. The core concept of …