Mitchell Bisschop had a hit with his solo performance of Pit of Goblins in this year’s Hollywood Fringe Festival. Pit of Goblins has crawled out of that goblin-esque pit for a short run at The Complex’s Ruby Theatre. The show is not a rollicking comedy, nor is it quite a blood and guts horror scare. … Continue reading “Pit of Goblins” at The Complex (Ruby Stage)
To call Rogue Artists Ensemble’s “Wood Boy Dog Fish” a bold, multimedia extravanganza is entirely appropriate. It is a mélange of disciplines both onstage and off. To tell the story of Carlo Collodi’s “The Adventures of Pinocchio” in a new, adult oriented way, the production deploys a squadron of actors, artists, designers and technicians to … Continue reading Rogue Artists Ensemble’s “Wood Boy Dog Fish” at Bootleg Theater
In The Fountain Theatre’s production of Athol Fugard’s “The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek,” a West Coast premiere, the time is 1981 and the setting is an arid hillside in Mpumalanga Province, Union of South Africa. An old man and a young boy enter onto a dry, dirt-filled stage where stones have been painted in … Continue reading “The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek” at The Fountain Theatre
Antaeus Theatre Company has the most unusual production scheme of double casting their shows while rehearsing both casts in ensemble. Eschewing the dull names of Cast A or Cast B, the company draws the names of its casts from the text of the current play, in this case, Anton Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya.” You will hear … Continue reading “Uncle Vanya” at Antaeus Theatre Company – Mermaids Cast
“Sondheim on Sondheim,” a new twist on an old idea, is a fresh approach to a musical revue. Now in production at International City Theatre, this Sondheim review throws the composer/lyricist directly into the action as a giant image on a screen upstage. Footage from multiple sources – old photographs and film clips, television appearances … Continue reading “Sondheim on Sondheim” at International City Theatre
Anton Chekhov called his plays comedies and so they are. On the page it might not be obvious, but on stage in the hands the very best players, the boredom, ennui and angst of the characters becomes absurd and deliciously, giddily funny. And this is just the case in Antaeus Theatre Company’s achingly brilliant production … Continue reading “Uncle Vanya” at Antaeus Theatre Company – Vixen Cast
At the top of Qui Nguyen’s “Vietgone,” now in its world premiere staging at South Coast Repertory, the charming, ingratiating “Playwright” (Paco Tolson) gives the usual pre-show speech about exits, cell phone and wrapped candies, then goes on to introduce the cast, who display a mastery of the most egregious stereotypes of Asians and Americans. … Continue reading “Vietgone” at South Coast Repertory
John Cox is brave. A former U. S. Army Airborne Ranger, he came to full knowledge of himself after mustering out, when, at loose ends, he travelled to Dutch Harbor, Alaska, to take an entry level job on a commercial fishing boat in the brutal Bering Sea. John Cox is smart. After three years of … Continue reading “The Money Fi$h” at The Hudson Theatres
Martín Zimmerman’s extraordinary play “Seven Spots on the Sun” draws upon some of the most ancient theatrical devices to tell a complex, profoundly emotional tale of honor and love, as well as cruelty and horror set in a small Central American village suffering through a brutal civil war. Three actors collectively called The Town (Daniel … Continue reading “Seven Spots on the Sun” at The Theatre @ Boston Court
I have to confess that as a theatre professional for more than forty years and as a drama student before that, I had never seen Clifford Odets “Awake and Sing.” Oh, I probably read it in school or witnessed students perform scenes from it, but never did attend a full-blown staging until I saw Odyssey … Continue reading “Awake and Sing” at Odyssey Theatre Ensemble
Paul Myrvold's Theatre Notes 