The story of Simon Wiesenthal, the famed Nazi hunter, is by now legendary. Born on the last day of December, 1908, in Buczacz in what is now Ukraine, he, like millions upon millions of Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, untold numbers of children, as well as the infirm, disabled, and others deemed undesirable, were swept up and … Continue reading “Wiesenthal” at Theatre 40
A. A. Milne was far more than the author of Winnie-the-Pooh and all the other beloved characters based on the toys of his young son, Christopher Robin. He also wrote poetry, magazine articles, political pieces, novels and plays. Shortly after mustering out of the British Army in 1919, he wrote the drawing room comedy, Mr. … Continue reading “Mr. Pim Passes By” at Theatre 40
Part autobiography, part political satire, part romantic comedy, and very much a smart, rollicking, entirely original “play with a musical,” David Henry Hwang’s new theatrical extravaganza, Soft Power, now in its world premiere run at the Ahmanson Theatre, keys in on two characters, a Chinese state film producer, Xue Xing (Conrad Ricamora) and an American … Continue reading “Soft Power” at the Ahmanson Theatre
Two fools in a neutral space inevitably conjure up the memory of Vladimir and Estragon, the heroes of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. Didi and Gogo are so stuck in their loop waiting for Godot, that they do nearly the same thing in the second act. In Bernardo Cubría’s new play, The Giant Void in … Continue reading “The Giant Void in My Soul” at Ammunition Theatre Company
At lights up, a firmly erect young woman walks a seemingly set number of paces in half light from stage right to center, turns and walks back off as her light fades. Mystery tickles the audience at the outset of Steve Apostolina’s eighty-five minute wonder, Forever Bound. The playwright takes his time in revealing the … Continue reading “Forever Bound” at Atwater Village Theatre
I have a vision of an idealized universe that I hold deeply inside me, a time far in the future when the United Federation of Planets battles evil with crews of people that are respected for their abilities and the content of their characters. They are not despised for their outward appearance or judged by … Continue reading “Little Black Shadows” at South Coast Repertory
One has to reach back to ancient Greece and the dawn of drama to fully understand Daniel Talbott’s intense, cathartic one-act play, What Happened When. Drama in the time of Sophocles, Aeschylus, and Euripides had the civic purpose of educating the populace by displaying examples of moral and behavioral excess that brought ruin on principal … Continue reading “What Happened When” at Echo Theater Company
