Penelope Lowder’s new play, West Adams, now running at the Skylight Theatre, is justifiably touted in the press release as a dark comedy. When I think of dark comedies, I think of “War of the Roses,” the 1989 film that starred Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner as a bitterly divided married coupled, and Danny DeVito … Continue reading “West Adams” at Skylight Theatre
Sam Shepard crowded into my fevered sleep in the dead of night. Just hours after seeing his two remarkable plays, The Unseen Hand and The Killer’s Head, at Odyssey Theatre, I started thinking about the shows in a half-conscious state and a memory struck me. It is the image of the actor/playwright striding away from … Continue reading “The Unseen Hand” and The Killer’s Head” at Odyssey Theatre Ensemble
The award winning British playwright, Mike Bartlett (Cock, Bull, King Charles III), won an Olivier prize for his play, Earthquakes in London, in 2010. This prescient play is more meaningful now than when it was first produced. With the climate running rampant due to evermore vigorous human activity that shows no sign of slowing down, … Continue reading “Earthquakes in London” at Rogue Machine
Attending a play in a large, Broadway-sized theatre, the Coronet (renamed the Eugene O’Neill) say, which has a capacity of 1047 seats, puts most of the audience at some remove from the onstage action. Good actors in the old days put their training to good use projecting their voices off the back wall of the … Continue reading “All My Sons” at Pacific Resident Theatre
In a fictional land of the future created by playwright Neil McGowan in his astonishing new play, Disposable Necessities, the wealthy can dispose of their bodies and occupy new ones through a company that has developed the ability to extract, at enormous cost, the conscious soul of a person and put it into whatever body … Continue reading “Disposable Necessities” at Rogue Machine
Guy Picot’s smart black comedy, The Christmas Present, is a terrific deviation in holiday fair, taking a left turn into the dark alley of repressed desire and yearning need. The scene is set in an upscale hotel room that boasts expensive-looking red sheets on the bed, and, judging by the text of the script and … Continue reading “The Christmas Present” at Broadwater Black Box
Gallows humor…cracking a joke with the hangman before the drop. From time immemorial, human beings have found a way to laugh in the face of death. People, that is, who don’t quiver, blubber, and go catatonic with fear. Comedians, who crack wise on stage before audiences that range from a few late-nighters in intimate venues, … Continue reading “Max and Willy’s Last Laugh”at UCLA’s James Bridges Theater
I am continually amazed by Little Fish Theatre in San Pedro. This ambitious company again and again puts up shows of quality and excellence both in production and performance. There may be a show now and then that doesn’t quite hit the mark, but for the most part, I have seen great revivals of classic … Continue reading “Embridge” at Little Fish Theatre
If you ever wondered about the term, in medias res, the first moments of Lee Blessing’s 2015 play, For the Loyal, is as good an example as any. A story that begins that way is without preamble, in the middle of the action, often, in the height of the action. At lights up at For … Continue reading “For the Loyal” at Sixty-Six Theater Company
I first encountered the enormously talented Michelle Azar last May when I saw her in the hit show, Bronco Billy, at the Skylight Theatre Company. She played the villainous Constance, an operatic diva, a performance I called, “an over-the-top, Cruella-de-Vil-esque delight.” So it was with great anticipation that I motored over to the Skirball Center … Continue reading “From Baghdad to Brooklyn” at the Skirball Cultural Center
Paul Myrvold's Theatre Notes 