Recent Reviews
Review: Crimes of the Heart by Playhouse San Antonio
by Kurt Gardner
Published on June 23, 2017
This thick slice of Southern Gothic is served up fresh by director Bill Gundry. He knows Henley’s dialogue will sell itself, so the actors deliver their lines, no matter how appalling, naturally and without exaggeration. It’s the truth in the piece that puts it over.
Beth Henley’s 1978 Pulitzer Prize-winning Crimes of the Heart has aged well. Its Chekhovian tale about the tribulations of the Magrath sisters of Hazlehurst, Mississippi, is timeless, and the Cellar Theatre’s sparkling production is buoyed by an appealing cast. Erin Polewski shines as Lenny, the eldest of the sisters, who suffers from a shrunken ovary and a lack of romantic prospects. Also good is Emily Cleveland as middle sister Meg, who has returned from …
Review: Passion AND Assassins (two one-acts) by The Theatre Company
by Michael Meigs
Published on June 22, 2017
The Theatre Company demonstrates a vision and flair second to none in the broad area of Central Texas covered by this website's reviewers. That sound you hear from a hundred miles away is this writer's grateful and enthusiastic applause.
They're magic. Not only the two Sondheim pieces Passion and Assassins, but also the transformative artistry of the company that's putting on those two works, challenging both in concept and in technique. The shadowy ritual space of the theatre where we gathered last Saturday afternoon provided transport first to moody broodings of the heart in 19th century Italy and then to derailed ravings of a parade of adamant anguished murderers. The Theatre Company …
Review: 9 Circles by EZL - The Surround Project
by Kurt Gardner
Published on June 21, 2017
Reeves tells his lieutenant, “Some things don’t bother me like they bother other people.” When asked to cite an example, he responds, “The basics, sir. Killing people. It bothers some people, sir.”
With its allusions to Dante’s nine circles of hell, Bill Cain’s 9 Circles is an unflinching look at the futility of war and the psychological damage it can wreak. Zach Lewis stars as Daniel Reeves, a 19-year-old private and self-described f***-up. After being honorably discharged from service in Iraq, he wakes up in a holding cell in the United States with no recollection of how he got there. He is shocked to learn that he has …
Review: The Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert & Sullivan Austin
by David Glen Robinson
Published on June 16, 2017
The PIRATES OF PENZANCE works its magic gradually. After the stage fills with absurd stereotypical costumes garbing actors swaying to corny lyrics, one’s adult critical reserve caves in. After that, one drinks the kool-aid of Victorian light opera.
Gilbert and Sullivan Austin premiered its 2017 Grand Production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance on June 15, 2017. The company offers one full production per year, to great expectations always, and it does not disappoint with Pirates. The original production of The Pirates of Penzance took place in 1879 in New York City, not London. W.S. Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan, and their producer Richard D’Oyly Carte moved the production to New York …
Review: Troilus and Cressida by Something for Nothing Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on June 08, 2017
Bring a cooler, a blanket, a picnic and a willingness to encounter a Shakespeare with whom you're unlikely to be familiar. Something for Nothing's Troilus and Cressida provides ample measures of lovers, heroes, rascals, ceremony and combat.
"Neighbor, this is a gift very grateful, I am sure of it." The quotation's from a different Shakespeare work currently onstage in Austin, but it captures my appreciation of Something for Nothing (S4N) Theatre's Troilus and Cressida, playing outdoors and freebies at Ramsey Park in Rosedale, just south of 45th Street and Medical Parkway/Burnet Road. Troilus and Cressida isn’t often performed; you might say that it’s out of the Bard’s back catalog. The …
Review: The Effect by Capital T Theatre
by David Glen Robinson
Published on May 30, 2017
A second act dialogue between pharmaceutical trial subjects Delanté Keys and Sarah Danko transcends by far any acting studio exercise, every impassioned phrase crystal clear. And then, dang! That was followed by an equally skilled dialogue between Rebecca Robinson and Rommel Sulit.
The Effect by Lucy Prebble takes us into clinical trials and testing, and offers us a glimpse of what we’ve always suspected really goes on in the corridors and sancta of pharmaceutical research. Yes, deep in the core of the institution, much as at Pharmaco in Austin, there beats a heart of love. This play is a love story, and it veers close to the Romeo and Juliet model of all such although not too close. …