Neal Weaver – Stage Raw There’s been no shortage of political satires on local stages, but all too many of them have been broad, obvious and stridently partisan. Jason Wells’ black farce, here receiving its world premiere production, is several cuts above the rest. It’s literate, sophisticated, hip, hilariously funny and relatively free of political … Read more
Jenny Lower – Stage Raw Separate Beds, a relationship comedy by that lacks the absurdity of a farce and the insight of a drama, may stir self-recognition among a few long coupled audience members. (If so, you should get yourself to a marriage counselor right away.) Read more… Now running through June 19
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Titles don’t always alert you to what plays are about, but with Rajiv Joseph’s Gruesome Playground Injuries, the appellation is pretty much on the mark. Divided into eight scenes, this 75 minute one-act revolves around the relationship between two grievously wounded individuals. Kayleen (Sara Rae Foster) and Doug (Jeff Ward) … Read more
Paul Birchall – Stage Raw I am not sure why it comes as a surprise that Zombie Joe’s Underground, the ferociously imaginative theater company on Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood, should so ably create this sweet, artful candy box of an adaptation of Shakespeare’s frivolous rustic comedy. Read more… Now running through June 19
Myron Meisel – Stage Raw Class warfare has surged and ebbed in the U.S. public consciousness during harder or more prosperous times throughout the past century, but the distorted perversion that it is something waged by the poor upon privileged victims gets exposed as a disingenuous lie by Eugene O’Neill’s 1922 The Hairy Ape – an anguished … Read more
Lovell Estell III – Stage Raw Ask anyone whether they’ve heard of Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) and you’ll probably get a quick “yes,” along with an annoyed “what a stupid question” stare. But it’s a safe bet that the names Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith wouldn’t be recognized. They were the men who started the organization in the unenlightened … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw In one way, The City of Conversation can be seen as playwright’s paean to the bygone politics of 20th century America —in retrospect a fairer and far less brutal game than the one played today. Read more… Dany Margolies – The Daily Breeze Plays usually center on a boiling-over point. “The City of Conversation” … Read more
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw John (Sam Anderson), the title character in Julie Marie Myatt’s long one-act, is a bitter and guilt-ridden man. A hard-drinking womanizer and jail-bird, he became a father, but a very reluctant one.Read more… Now running through July 3
Myron Meisel – Stage Raw For a considerable time now, it has become exceptionally difficult to shock an audience, a gambit that used to be an important arrow in the artist’s quiver. Nevertheless, in a society where in recent years the most dreaded circumstance has become to feel in any colorable way “awkward”, discomfiting the … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw What happens to a working-class alpha male when he loses his work? The consequences of such are on brilliant display in playwright/performer Raymond J. Barry’s Foreclosure or Yelling at Women Walking Their Dogs, a taut penetrating one-act that rivets around a fractured American family and the never-ending battle between philistinism and … Read more