Terry Morgan – LAist It’s a good week for new adaptations of classic plays in L.A. On the east side, Antaeus has their terrific production of Corneille’s The Liar, while on the west side we’re treated to the L.A. premiere of David Greig’s adaptation of August Strindberg’s Creditors. With its combination of wit and cruelty … Read more
Terry Morgan – LAist Scary plays are a rarity in the American theatrical landscape, but thankfully Los Angeles has several theatre companies that offer something macabre for horror aficionados. Zombie Joe’s Underground in North Hollywood delivers year-long delightful strangeness, Wicked Lit stages literary adaptations in nighttime graveyards and the Grand Guignolers create their own mix … Read more
Terry Morgan – LAist Late great science fiction author Philip K. Dick’s two thematic questions that ran through almost all of his work were “What is reality” and “What does it mean to be human?” While his novel The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch is an example of the former question, a nightmarish tale of … Read more
Les Spindle – Edge on the Net In chronicling the beginning of a momentous chapter in the history of gay culture, namely the initial outbreak of the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s, Larry Kramer’s watershed play “The Normal Heart” offers a deeply moving snapshot of an era, while imparting timeless truths.Read more… Bob Verini … Read more
Bob Verini – ArtsInLA Gina Gionfriddo’s Rapture, Blister, Burn is a report from the feminist front. Folded within a thin narrative is a lot of intriguing conversation, which in the course of two acts brings out numerous perspectives on what women do (and should) need and what they do (and should) want. The talk is … Read more
Terry Morgan – LAist If, as the old adage has it, “you can’t go home again,” then that truth deserves another, which is that wherever you’re from is always with you. Regardless of the relative importance of nature or nurture, the past is an umbilical cord that is never completely cut. This idea is dealt … Read more
Terry Morgan – LAist When one thinks of Arthur Miller’s body of work, one doesn’t immediately think “chronicler of Italian-American experience,” but with A View From The Bridge, he revealed a further breadth of his talent. The lead characters of most of Miller’s plays are imperfect men, from Willy Loman and John Proctor, and Eddie … Read more
Pauline Adamek – LA Weekly Sequels are tough. Expectations are generally high and you can never attain the novelty factor of the first outing. Writer-director Jaime Robledo’s Watson and the Dark Art of Harry Houdini, the second installment in his Watson series, is less dazzling (far fewer action set-pieces) and more talky than the first … Read more
Bob Verini – ArtsInLA If you revel in fine actors’ pushing the envelope of what performance can do, or have an interest in investigating important historical experience via theatrical means, this ungainly-named but unforgettable work is *the* production of the summer, just as Son of Semele’srecently closed Our Class was *the* production of the spring. In both, a … Read more
THE CRUCIBLE by Arthur Miller. Neal Weaver – LA Weekly Arthur Miller’s play, first produced on Broadway in 1953, was Miller’s impassioned response to McCarthyism and the witch-hunts launched by the House Un-American Activities Committee. But the fact that it has become an oft-produced American classic and the basis for two films (including a French version with … Read more