When entering Odyssey’s initmate theatre for Yasmina Reza’s mad-cap dark comedy, God of Carnage (translated by Christopher Hampton), it is a pleasure to peruse Tyler Scrivner’s ideal scenic design. The set dressings clue one into the kind of people who inhabit the dwelling: modern art on the walls, expensive imported flowers on a low table, … Continue reading “God of Carnage” at Odyssey Theatre
Corey Rieger, John Fantasia, Michael Uribes and Laura Liguori. Photo by Jenny Graham. Murray Mednick is a prolific, award winning playwright well known locally for his Gary Plays and other works. His latest play, Three Tables, which is written and directed by the playwright, is quite unusual, to say the least. Presented at the intimate … Continue reading “Three Tables” at Zephyr Theatre
Ron Bottitta in “Victoria Station.” Photo by Josh La Cour. After writing reviews and op-eds in the Greater Bay Area, my wife and I decamped to Greater Los Angeles to be closer to our kids. I soon discovered the amazing amount of excellent theatre here from the tiniest venue at the Hudson to the Pantages … Continue reading “Wakings” at Odyssey Theatre Ensemble
Playwright, actor, and backyard impresario, Tom Dugan does it again! The restraints of the pandemic have abated and Mr. Dugan has produced yet another winner adjacent to his swimming pool where he has erected some risers and put in some comfortable seats. He has built a set with ample theatre lighting, which is controlled by … Continue reading “Cemetery Pub” at Dugan’s Backyard Playhouse
Hiroko Imai and Tomoko Karina. Photo by Jenny Graham There is a certain mystery when Tomoko Karina as Himiko, the key character in the revival of Velina Hasu Houston’s play Tea, makes a dramatic, ethereal entrance gliding across the highest walkway in the Rosenthal Theater and down the stairs to the stage floor. She enters … Continue reading “Tea” at the Rosenthal Theater
Get ready for superlatives because Daf James’ extraordinary play, On the Other Hand, We’re Happy, is given a brilliant staging by director Cameron Watson and a superb cast at Rogue Machine at the Matrix Theatre. It has a been a long, long Covid night and I have missed Rogue Machine and many other companies, but … Continue reading “On the Other Hand, We’re Happy” at Rogue Machine
Judy Carter’s new comedy, A Death-Defying Escape, now playing at the Hudson Guild Theatre, demands a plethora of superlatives—amazing, brilliant, achingly funny, powerfully tragic, with eye-popping magic tricks— oh, I could go on! Ms. Carter engages the audience with the very personal story of her life as a child growing up as a Jewish girl … Continue reading “A Death-Defying Escape” at The Hudson Guild Theater
To borrow from the Nobel prize winning author, Gabriel García Márquez, playwright Boni B. Alvarez’ new play could be called “Love in the Time of Covid,” but his play, Apartment Living, is an ideal fit for the emotional angst of these times of uncertainty fueled not only by the pandemic, but worse, a vicious war … Continue reading “Apartment Living” at Skylight Theatre Company
All my life since I was in grade school, I believed that Norwegian lemmings committed mass suicide by throwing themselves off a cliff and into the ocean below. How did I know this? Hard to say exactly, but I suspect that the information came from the Disney Corporation and their wild life movies, which were … Continue reading “A Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay About the Death of Walt Disney” at Odyssey Theatre
Spencer Cantrell, Jennifer Zorbalas and Stephanie Crothers. Photo by Frank Ishman Sarah Ruhl’s 2009 play, In the Next Room, or the vibrator play, debuted at Berkeley Rep, then moved on to Broadway where it was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and three nominations for the Tony Awards. It has since been produced multiple times in … Continue reading “In the Next Room, or the vibrator play” At Open Fist Theatre Company
Paul Myrvold's Theatre Notes 