Recent Reviews
Review: KING LEAR by The Baron's Men, Austin
by Michael Meigs
Published on October 10, 2024
The Baron's Men's KING LEAR, a first, marks their 25th anniversary with eloquence and precision—a beautiful production of an enduring tragedy. They've scaled Everest.
Shakespeare's great tragedy is a fable that dares portray in resounding verse some of mankind's most common but most harrowing issues. The tyranny of the selfish old, set against the arrogance of the selfish young; the toxic dissolution of family ties and family hierarchy; the horror of ageing and senescence; the inevitability of human downfall; ambition, evil, and the sacrifice of innocents. These huge and inescapable issues are rooted in the human condition. We huddle …
Review: Lyric & The Keys by Magik Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on October 09, 2024
The parable Lyric & the Keys appeals to different levels of understanding—while entertaining, Roxanne Schroeder-Arce's story shows great empathy both for children and for the adults trying to nourish them.
The title of Roxanne Schroeder-Arce's play Lyric & the Keys prompted expectations of group of second-grade musicians, something gentler than, say, the cohort around Jack Black in School of Rock but lengthier and more coherent than the cutely pedagogical television series Schoolhouse Rock. But no; though protagonist Lyric is a beginning musician able to strum guitar chords, the keys of the title aren't session musicians at all. Her teacher Miss Reed (Clarissa Ramos) valiantly explains …
Review: Suddenly Last Summer by Filigree Theatre
by David Glen Robinson
Published on October 07, 2024
Huge talent and commitment to Tennessee Williams's unrelenting plot and imagery make Filigree Theatre's SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER a vital, unmissable production
Tennessee Williams’ Suddenly Last Summer pries open the boiler door to reveal the flames of 1930s passion, mores, and the corruption of the thoroughly guilt-ridden ultra-wealthy in Great Depression New Orleans. The play isn't as well-known as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof or A Streetcar Named Desire, but in the hands of Elizabeth V. Newman and her excellent cast at Factory on Fifth in downtown east Austin, this weighty piece from the Willliams canon …
.png)
Review: Hungry Teenage Track Stars by Broad Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on October 03, 2024
What a vivid portrayal of the the stress of adolescence! Five lively, questioning young women struggle with uncertainty, imposed norms, and their own developing emotional lives.
Theatre is a gymnasium for empathy, a Facebook meme admonishes us. But it's also a Tardis, a magic space that can take you anywhere, anytime, to anyone. That's how on a Friday night we found ourselves in the aching space of female adolescence. First sight: two rows of teenage women, squintng at us as if they were ranged on the other side of a two-way mirror. Wordless beneath a roar of pop music, …
Review: A Prayer for Peace by Blue Lapis Light, Austin, to September 29, 2024
by David Glen Robinson
Published on September 23, 2024
Ethereal and serene, performing on silks and in harness, Blue Lapis Light's company sends A PRAYER FOR PEACE from Austin to the universe.
Blue Lapis Light, the company headed by longtime Austin choreographer and performance artist Sally Jacques, is presenting A Prayer for Peace. Its newest production takes place outside on a tall office building in west Austin. Literally on the face of a tall office building. Yes, this is the company that performs in harnesses at great heights. In recent years, they have added show pieces in silks, the gymnastic mode with performers holding and climbing long …
Review: Macbeth by Mary Moody Northen Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on September 23, 2024
MACBETH is spellbinding—if you already know the story and the text. MMNT design elements are haunting, but too often text scansion and intelligibility are lacking,
Macbeth, intrepid thane of Glamis promoted for valor to thane of Cawdor, is seduced by the lure of greatness and power. These are promised to him by the mendacious witches known as the weird sisters and by his lady wife, more avaricious and duplicitous than her soldier husband. Shakespeare's story, one of the infernal vortex and pit of ambition, is well served by the minimalist set design of Theada Haining and by Kathryn Eader's …