KING LEAR at The Wallis

Steven Leigh Morris – Stage Raw Shakespeare’s play gets a Wooster Group-ish makeover in John Gould Rubin’s modern dress staging for the Wallis. Tech is omnipresent, almost omniscient. Narrow, vertical panels on both sides of the stage provide screens for Keith Skretch’s projection design, featuring striking images of fires and floods now generally associated with … Read more

TEA – Hero Theatre at the Rosenthal Theater at Inner-City Arts

Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Tea, the final installment in Velina Hasu Houston’s trilogy of plays about Japanese war brides, takes place, geographically speaking, in Junction City, a small town in the northeast stretch of Kansas. That’s close to where Houston, the daughter of a Japanese woman and an American GI of African American and … Read more

BRIGHT HALF LIFE at the Road Theatre on Magnolia

Terry Morgan  –  ArtsBeat LA Plays that chart the course of a romantic relationship have long been a staple of theater. Stories told in a nonlinear way are less common but not unheard of. When you take the previous two structures and apply them to the topic of a lesbian interracial marriage, the result is … Read more

IN THE NEXT ROOM, OR THE VIBRATOR PLAY at Atwater Village Theatre

Terry Morgan  –  Artsbeat LA When I told people I was going to see a new production of Sarah’s Ruhl’s play, In the Next Room, I received a series of blank stares, but when I included its subtitle, or the vibrator play, I saw instant comprehension. Sex gets people’s attention. Read more… Tracey Paleo – Gia on the … Read more

THE RAGE FAIRY at the Sherry Theatre

Tracey Paleo – Gia On The Move When they said nothing could stop the Rage Fairy from finding love even if her man du jour is a literal murderer, they weren’t kidding.  The absurdist comedy written by playwright Antonia Czinger is a tornado of chaos that deals with love, codependence, and plain bad judgment through … Read more

ON THE OTHER HAND, WE’RE HAPPY -Rogue Machine Theatre at the Matrix

Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Welsh playwright Daf James’s On the Other Hand, We’re Happy tells the story of a couple’s efforts to adopt a child and the subsequent doubts and fears that plague both the prospective parents and the birth mother. Read more… Terry Morgan  –  Artsbeat LA Some theater locations seem to be blessed, and in … Read more

THIS WONDERFUL LIFE at the Matrix Theatre

Terry Morgan  –  Artsbeat LA It’s a Wonderful Life is now an undisputed holiday classic, but its road to perennial status was as long and difficult as its hero’s journey to happiness. Read more… Tracey Paleo – Gia on the Move “It is a terrifying, asphyxiating story about growing up and relinquishing your dreams, of seeing your … Read more