When I critique a stage play, I consider both the work and the production. A worthy play may get a mediocre or problematic staged treatment. A clumsy or dated, predictable play sometimes surprises with a wonderful enlivenment. It’s not often I see shows that balance out both aspects, for better or for worse. The productions … Continue reading
Tagged with august strindberg …
Bursting Bellicosity’s Bubble @ Stage West
Any play that draws inspiration from Virgil’s Aeneid perks my ears up. One of GB Shaw’s early commercial “hits”, Arms and the Man, first produced in 1891, plucks its title from the opening lines of The Aeneid (Arma virumque cano: literally, I sing of arms and the man, meaning “I sing of the deeds of … Continue reading
Redemption Under Main: Strindberg’s “Easter”
One should not own anything that binds one to earth. Go out on the stony highways and wander with bleeding feet, for that way leads upwards….”—Eleanora Heyst in August Strindberg’s Easter Undermain Theatre’s production of Easter floats up from the chill depths of the North Sea, a timeless, many-chambered nautilus, luminescent with otherworldly imagination and … Continue reading
Broken Gears’ CREDITORS: Debt Paid in Full
Snuggle up tight, lover, and pay your debt. When Alan Rickman directed the 1888 play Creditors in London and New York in 2008, he described it as “three characters dragged through a hedge backwards in 90 minutes,” Make that a humongous holly hedge with sharp barbs. Creditors is a rank, double-dip dose of double cross … Continue reading
Join me at the theater? Schedule Updates
Come with me to the theater? Play productions are beginning to sprout like colorful weeds all over the region. Here’s what’s opening soon or playing now: THE EXECUTIONER’S SONS by Catherine Bush Directed by Terri Ferguson Runs February 5-19, 2011 Echo Theatre Bath House Cultural Center Dallas TX http://www.echotheatre.org http://www.bathhousecultural.org The Executioner’s Sons, Photo by … Continue reading
