Registered Critic: Vanessa Cate - Stage Raw
Frankenstein
There are far too many provocative, shapely, and astute elements at work to write this piece off as anything less than exquisite.
punkplay
Truthfully, the writer’s vision, when realized, is a brilliant glimpse back to what it was like growing up as an angst-ridden teenager, desperately searching for understanding and railing against conformity amid the ‘foodeaters and motherfuckers.’
Mono/Poly
Those seeking an outlandish romp into sexual deviance should look elsewhere. This play serves best as an introduction to a conversation about what polyamory authentically looks like.
THE LAST FIVE YEARS
Overall, After Hours Theatre Company has proven once again to be hungry to challenge itself. Even in the production’s weaker points, exacerbated by a problematic script, it is never painful to watch, and it is always beautiful to listen to.
ASSMONKEY
Despite the show’s well-intentioned misfires, the content is important, and the scientific factoids are valuable. If Del Pizzo can find her footing, there is potential for a unique and moving piece. As with the point of her show, her biggest obstacle is actually herself.
The Glass Menagerie
However, once the gentleman caller exits the stage, the energy is once again deflated. The final image we are left with is a director’s choice, not in the script, which references the real life tragic fate of the writer’s sister, a stage picture that feels both hopeless and a cliche.
Too Heavy for Your Pocket
While the play features familiar dramaturgical stereotypes, it achieves poignancy and freshness by focusing on the Civil Rights movement through the prism of class and gender.
The Importance of Being Earnest
The unfortunate downfall throughout this production is a prevailing clumsiness; actors tripping over lines, tripping over furniture, mugging and upstaging each other inappropriately. The grace and class of the characters is often found wanting: gentlemen chewing crumbling muffins with their mouths open and wiping their mouths on the tablecloth is a prime example.
A PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY
No production at A Noise Within has ever felt as vital or as alive as Michael Michetti’s ‘A Picture of Dorian Gray’. Michetti, who adapted and directed, seems to have invested as much of his own life essence into this work as Oscar Wilde did his. The result is a complex, beautiful and impressively theatrical representation of a formidably subtle and verbose text.
BACCHAE by Euripides
So, the technicality of the text is well-handled, and the cast is comprised of highly talented and effective players. However, whether we look at producing “Bacchae” as an artistic challenge or as a ritual act of observance to the god itself, the vital — and necessary — feeling of pleasure is woefully missing. “Bacchae” may talk a big game, but this production feels undeniably prudish. If you’re looking for Bacchic revelry, sorry, you’ll have to settle for academia.
STILL
Writer/director Olivia Fischer has conceived a gentle approach to the subject of rape. Inspired by her own personal experience, Fischer led her actors in a process of improvisation to fully flesh out the script, making the piece at least partially devised. The acting and directing style are incredibly naturalistic, which serves nicely amid such a delicate stage atmosphere… Depictions and descriptions are never graphic, but a trigger warning is still issued for the obviously upsetting and collectively prescient subject matter.
Easy Targets: Artists and Heroes
The actors are actually all really good and perform their respective monologues unflinchingly through the onslaught of socks. “All About Me,” written by Jon Beauregard and performed by Selina Merrill, is about an actress who was born for the stage. Matt Almos’ “An Evening with Abraham Lincoln,” performed by Eric Curtis Johnson, acquaints you with the 16th president of the United States. Tracey Leigh performs Selina Merrill’s spoken word “Word Magic.” And Jaime Robledo’s “Space Man (or How I Found Myself in Low Earth Orbit)” deals with lone astronaut Hugo Armstrong. And all of them are just as deliciously horrible as they sound.
GLORIA
The program does not note a director. Waller, a strong performer, could have used an outside eye to refine her performance. Still, her talent is apparent, and scenes of montage, dance choreography, film noir-style drama, and the use of props are exceptionally impressive for a one-person show in the Hollywood Fringe Festival.
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
Essentially, while boasting a top-notch immersive prologue, this is mostly a show performed ala theatre in the round. “Chronic Patients” are audience members who stay on the safe and slightly distant seating around the perimeter. “Acute Patients” get to jump right in to group meetings and other moments, while acting as veritable free labor background actors. It’s a brilliant choice, and after seeing this production I can no longer conceive of Cuckoo’s Nest staged in a traditional way. RECOMMENDED
Spiritual Ecstasy
After watching an evening full of performances of varying quality, this show was the one that left the biggest impression. Whether the goal of dramatic art is to entertain or incite retrospection, Spiritual Ecstacy, strangely enough, fits the bill. Consider it a New Age take on immersive theatre.
Pizza Man
Combined with the almost passive aggressive pre-show (a projected music video of women singing about how they hate all men and fake advertisements plastered in the restroom showing women dominating men), plus a slew of sexist dialogue (for instance, can we not make fun of a size 2 woman for being fat?), this play misses both of theater’s higher goals – to incite or inspire. If Pizza Man has achieved any of art’s strivings, it is to entertain. But to be entertained by this kind of content makes us as an audience complicit in the apparent endorsement of abuse.
Henry V
However, when all is said and done, all other elements of the play might succeed or fail but the weight of the work would still rest on the shoulders of the actor playing Henry V…Though young, Goldstein possesses a composure and gravitas beyond his years. What better choice, then, for the young charismatic king of legend? – RECOMMENDED
Priscilla Queen Of The Desert
One might wonder how it might be possible to transpose the drag epic and its titular tour bus into an intimate black box theatre. This ambitious paring down is the truest magic of Celebration Theatre’s effort, and the biggest slam-dunk of Jessica Hanna’s direction. Pete Hickok recreates night clubs, bars, dressing rooms, the desert expanse, and a tour van from several ingenious moveable set pieces. In such a small space, this easy transformation is a wonder, but it’s not the only one: Roman Pantoja’s choreography cheekily defies the limitations of the tight quarters – high heels and all! – RECOMMENDED
THE CHINESE WALL
The play is overly long and very messy. The point of the original script is clear almost immediately, with nothing much new or exciting added during the slog.
Nothing Is the Same
Added to the noble pursuit of bringing theatre to patrons and students alike, Nothing is the Same can be forgiven for at least some of its shortcomings.