Dare to tread where death abounds? The Blighted Heart surely killed the critic as he wrote his front row review of this 9-act torchy blunder. The farce it’s part of, Stiff, is simply to die for. Laughing, that is. Find this frenzied, farcical delite at The Barrow Group Theatre (TBG Theatre) through March 3, 2018 … Continue reading
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Dynamic Dame Creates World of Wonderful
When William Moulton Marston created the fictional Amazonian character Wonder Woman for DC Comics (first appeared in 1941), he probably had no clue of the paradigm shifting, multi-generational impact and popularity she would have. Nor could he have imagined the impact one creative, intelligent, impassioned producer/advocate, a veritable Wonder Woman in her own right, could … Continue reading
Parents Trapped at Proper Hijinx
No goofy teen Hayley Mills bebops about in Bathsheba Doran’s hour long Parents Evening, presented by Proper Hijinx at the Addison Conference Center Studio Theatre through Sunday, October 1. An embattled, bickering, relentlessly flagellating homage to the ritual prep some couples with progeny must go through prior to engaging in parent-teacher conferences at the dreaded … Continue reading
WHAT THE DEUCE! A Dreamy Double-Dose of Drama
Double your pleasure, double your fun. Double your impact? With the NEA, NEH and PBS funding at risk under a wildcat Republican administration in DC, it’s hard not to worry how the arts will survive and thrive. Two Best of the Region theatre companies have linked resources to offer audiences a special two-fer deal this … Continue reading
Step Up to The Basement: Our Future, Performing Today
Just don’t call them “kids” in the theatre…. When they walk into a rehearsal or performance setting, these artists are as professional as they come in our arts community. They are the creative engines, the future visionary drivers emerging from Jeff Swearingen’s Fun House Theatre and Film. And they are stepping out in style in … Continue reading
A Rabe Rave & Rant: STICKS AND BONES at Fun House Theatre
Sticks and Bones, David Rabe’s 1972 Tony Award-winning play, is the second part of a trilogy dealing with the Vietnam War, following The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel and preceding Streamers. It is, without a doubt, one of the hardest stage dramas to sit through I have ever experienced. Partway through the first scene it’s … Continue reading
Proscenium Politics: Fun House Theatre and Film 2016 Season
“Art is a powerful tool for social change; performing is a responsibility with genuine impact that’s important for youth actors to experience as well as see as audience members.” Jeff Swearingen, Artistic Director, Fun House Theatre and Film The start of a new year finds many theatre companies across the region revving up to announce … Continue reading
Making the Hard Sell: Fun House Theatre’s “Death of A Salesman”
Fun House Theatre and Film. Would Willy Loman approve? I should hope so. Anybody who mounts a production of a prestigious, iconic three-act drama like Arthur Miller’s Death of A Salesman takes on a sales job of imposing proportion. “The play’s a downer.” “It goes on FOREVER.” “Why can’t we see something funny?” Sometimes you … Continue reading
Salesman Lives at FunHouse Theatre: Pull on Your Grown-up Bloomers
Arthur Miller. Tennessee Williams. Eugene O’Neill. David Mamet. Edward Albee. Giants of the modern stage. You had better pull on your grown-up bloomers if you’re going to mount any of these icons’ plays, right? Pretty intimidating. Only for “real” pros, surely not for youth actors. Consider Miller’s Death of A Salesman, for instance. In its … Continue reading
Art to Inspire: THE WHALE and HARBOR
I almost never walk into a theatre with a preconceived notion of how I will write a review. Then sometimes the format or need for a particular perspective sweeps over me as soon as I arrive. The first people I ran into at The Kalita Humphreys Theater when I attended Uptown Players’ opening night of … Continue reading
criticalrant.com Alexandra Bonifield 