Neal Weaver – ArtsInLA Oscar Wilde’s Lady Bracknell put it this way: “Ignorance is like a delicate, exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone.” Wilde clearly intended this to be fatuous nonsense, and a dig at the intellectual…
Bob Verini – Stage Raw South Coast Repertory’s Tartuffe is something to witness, in every sense of the phrase. Audacious and thought-provoking, maddening and enlightening by turns, it’s a worthy addition to the venerable company’s anniversary celebration in its categorical refusal to…
Terry Morgan – Stage Raw Theatre West’s “Writers in Rep” program provides a great opportunity for playwrights, giving two new plays a repertory slot in the season. These are coveted full productions that spotlight new works. Unfortunately, one of these…
Bob Verini – Arts In LA Rogue Machine has turned itself into the go-to organization for provocative two-handers. If Rajiv Joseph’s Gruesome Playground Injuries lacks the dread of 2011’s Blackbird or the contemporary relevance of 2013’s Dying City, this production, directed by Larissa Kokernot, demonstrates…
Dany Margolies – Arts In LA This Agatha Christie play might be a classic murder mystery, but the legendary author underpins the script with her perceptiveness about human behavior. As directed by George Kondreck, Kentwood Players’ production, pretty much finds…
Margaret Gray – LA Times Whenever I read about the artistic scandals of the past — the near-riot provoked by Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring,” for example — I glumly conclude that we have grown so jaded that art has…
David C. Nichols – LA Times Sophocles and post-traumatic stress disorder commingle in “Ajax in Iraq” at the Miles Memorial Playhouse, to dazzling, disturbing effect. Read more… Now running through June 1.
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Hungarian playwright Ferenc Molnar’s The Guardsman has been viewed in this country mostly as a theatrical confection, an entertaining comedy about a jealous actor who undertakes an elaborate charade to establish his wife’s fidelity, or lack thereof.…
Pauline Adamek – Stage Raw Writer-director Sharon Pollock’s sluggish two-hour, two-act play attempts to dramatize the mystery of the Lizzie Borden murders with a puzzle-like plot, but her convoluted approach and inept staging simply make for a confusing and excruciating…
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw Shirl Hendryx’s play is set in an inn on a small Mediterranean island off the coast of Greece, where a group of movie-makers have gathered to prepare for a location shoot. Socially conscious American movie…