Neal Weaver – LA Weekly Elin Hampton’s play derives its comedy from the antics of an eccentric family. At 39, Molly (Cameron Meyer) has never escaped from the tyranny of her critical, exploitative parents, who have decided she’s a lesbian because she won’t wear makeup, and taunt her about her lack of a social life.Read … Read more
Pauline Adamek – LA Weekly An all-female production of Hamlet — why?! The gender-bending (and multicultural) casting permits this motley cast of women to tackle the tragedy’s meaty classic roles but adds nothing to the production. Rather, it distracts and detracts. Lisa Wolpe and Natsuko Ohama co-direct and star (as Hamlet and Polonius, respectively) in … Read more
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly Adapter and director Ramon Monxi Flores weaves Mayan mythology into this otherwise predictable message drama about a gangbanger and his uncertain journey toward redemption. Originating from a 1992 script by Victor Tamayo, which focused primarily on drug abuse, the familiar plot revolves around Carlos (Johnny Ortiz), a parentless youth living … Read more
Bob Verini – ArtsInLA As Greek tragedies go, Prometheus Bound poses something of a staging nightmare. There’s no betrayed wife out to murder her own children and her rival, no king brought to understand the truth about the older woman he married. Instead, it’s a solemn religioso pageant in which the god who created mortal … Read more
Dany Margolies – Arts In LA Coyotes don’t play fetch and greet us at the door and guard us in our homes. Coyotes are the predator version of our snuggly pups. They are the canines with the need to kill, excused—but not usually forgiven—because they’re programmed that way. Do we know of people like that?Read … Read more
Neal Weaver – LA Weekly Writer-director Steve Sajich’s play consists of four tenuously interrelated scenes, centering on the murder of a hooker. For reasons best known to Sajich, the four scenes are juggled in performance, with the audience deciding what their order will be. But this seems like a mere gimmick, designed to keep us … Read more
Deborah Klugman – LA Weekly As Bottom, performer Katherine Griffith may be the best reason to see this amusing but somewhat quotidian presentation of Shakespeare’s seasonal classic. Cast across gender by directors Melora Marshall and Willow Geer, Griffith’s likable blowhard garners a plurality of the laughs, along with his proletarian colleagues, whose presentation of Pyramus … Read more
Pauline Adamek – LA Weekly Each of two average, kitchen-sink tragedies, with some levity throughout, take as their focus the troubled relationship between adult daughters and their wayward, alcoholic parents. In You’ll Just Love My Dad, written by Stephanie Jones and Peter Schuyler, an old homeless guy breaks into a home and starts snooping around … Read more
Steven Leigh Morris – LA Weekly Tony Kushner’s A Bright Room Called Day was first presented as a workshop in 1985 at New York’s Theatre 22, before receiving its premiere at San Francisco’s Eureka Theatre in 1987, directed by Oskar Eustis — who runs New York’s Public Theater. It’s no coincidence that in 1990, Eustis … Read more
Les Spindle – Frontiers L.A. The works of veteran playwright-actor Sam Shepard (True West, The Curse of the Starving Class, A Lie of the Mind) are largely thought of as brooding portraits of severe family dysfunction in America’s heartland. His characters often face an inescapable legacy of decline and despair. Their psychological baggage leads them … Read more