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
That George Bernard Shaw is one of the greatest men of letters in the English language is beyond dispute. Some rank him above Shakespeare as a dramatist; certainly he wrote more plays than the immortal Bard. He was politically active in the Fabian and Socialist movements of his time, and was also a highly regarded … Continue reading “Engaging Shaw” at Theatre 40
If Sacred Fools Theater Company specializes in anything, it is in producing theatre works that are bold and innovative. Most often they are new plays like the recent Denim Doves, The Sirens of Titan, and their current hit, The Art Couple, that stimulate the senses, arouse the psyche, and challenge the audience. Sometimes the company … Continue reading “Disasteroid!” at Sacred Fools
Modern playwrights love to tinker with Shakespeare, that bottomless font of inspiration. Directors, too, like to find new ways of presenting the Bard’s inspired canon. One of the most famous and beloved adaptations is Cole Porter’s Kiss Me, Kate, with book by Samuel and Bella Spewack. Playwright Amy Freed, who had a hit last year … Continue reading “SHREW!” at South Coast Repertory
Akuma-shin, by Kenley Smith, is a most unusual theatrical endeavor and more than a little difficult to describe. The title is most assuredly Japanese and it may be more familiar to gamers as “Shin Akuma,” a monstrous character from the Street Fighter series whose name translates as “True Great Demon”, “True Great Devil” or “True … Continue reading “Akuma-shin” at Sacred Fools
People who love to make sense of the world by categorizing are fond of saying that there are only seven basic plots. While this is perhaps true in the grand scale of things, on the granular level the variations are infinite. Take comedy, and more specifically the screwball comedy, a subset that achieved its greatest … Continue reading “Unemployed Elephants—A Love Story” at The Victory Theatre Center
In Forgotten, Pat Kinevane takes on the roles of four residents of an elder care facility. As in his other two performance pieces, Underneath and Silent, Kinevane forms a bond with his audience, singling out individuals and asking their names. He talks to them over and over throughout the show. At times he stands as … Continue reading “Forgotten” at Odyssey Theatre
