The grim punning of Stay at Home Dead’s title had me expecting a black comedy. Boy, was I wrong. The play begins with the psychological evaluation of ex-businessman Dave (Andrew Chandler), who has done A Terrible Thing (alert audiences will guess his crime). Unfortunately, Dave’s more complex criminal motivations, such as his parenting insecurities, are […]
Rebecca Schneidereit
Posted inArts + Music
The Harvester
There’s been lots of buzz about The Harvester, or as I’ve heard it called, “the science fiction play”. It tells the tale of a man who bottles time (played by writer/director Paul Van Dyck) confronted by a phantom from his past (Margaret Legere). Both Legere and Van Dyck are compelling, but the runaway star of […]
Posted inArts + Music
Confessions of a Mormon Boy
Could you turn your life story into a business—script it, package it, take it on the road—and maintain your authenticity? Steven Fales’s autobiographical one-man Confessions of a Mormon Boy (directed by Jack Hofsiss) seems to do just that, charting Fales’s journey from LDS missionary to NYC hustler and beyond. It’s a polished piece of theatre […]
Posted inArts + Music
Bill Wood Presents: Magic You’ll Enjoy
Bill Wood Presents: Magic You’ll Enjoy consists of a string of standard parlor magic tricks – minds are mysteriously read, ropes do unropely things, and so on—linked together by Bill Wood’s self-effacing banter. Perhaps unintentionally, the show demonstrates that the actual “magic” in a magic act can be largely incidental: Wood is a competent illusionist, […]
Posted inArts + Music
Hansel and Gretel
Fairy tales are powerful: reduce them to their bare bones, and they’ll still hold children rapt. Hansel and Gretel, directed by Zara Tufts, retells the classic story of baked architecture and witchicide by oven. Adults Emily Pettet and Nick Piovesan give earnestly unwinking performances as the frightened children, and the set is ingenious, if minimal […]
Posted inArts + Music
Shakespeare on Trial
Shakespeare on Trial gets a lot of laughs at its audience’s expense, batting us back and forth between drama (“to be or not to be” is performed in full, beautifully) and farce (Ophelia has a beard). You won’t mind the theatrical whiplash: it’s all in the service of taking the Immortal Bard down a peg […]
Posted inArts + Music
Blood and Quick Silver
Writer/director Michael McPhee may have created the world’s first dada film noir in Blood and Quick Silver, which charts the professional misadventures of “private dick” Sam Silver (Michael McLeod). The players handle this anachronistic gem deftly—Annie Valentina is never misses a beat as no-good dame Emma Fatale—and the skilled use of cardboard props creates a […]
Posted inArts + Music
Athena in Love
Athena in Love, directed by Garry Williams, reimagines the Greek myth of Pallas and Athena (in which Pallas is killed) as a fable of mutual healing. Seeking to fulfill her dying friend’s wish that she aid the Gorgon Medusa, Athena (Keelin Jack) embarks on a quest that takes her beyond the limits of Greek mythology. […]