Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw In Bernardo Cubría’s The Play You Want, directed by Michael John Garcés, Bernardo (Peter Pasco), the central character, is a Mexican-American playwright who writes experimental plays about clowns, whom he views as universal symbols of humanity. Little would please Bernardo more than to be acclaimed as the new Latino Samuel Beckett. … Read more
Neal Weaver – Stage Raw Anna Ziegler’s play is a subtle examination of tangled human emotions — perceptive but only moderately satisfying. The play is threaded with many references to the mythological Icarus who fell to his death when he flew too close to the sun. Sarah quotes W. H. Auden’s poem “Musee Des Beaux … Read more
Terry Morgan – Stage Raw To paraphrase a theater maxim of Edmund Kean’s, “Tragedy is easy; comedy is hard.” It’s an assertion that’s proved true time and again. Harder still, perhaps, is successfully combining these two genres into one play, as the disappointing Big Night at the Douglas proved a couple of weeks back.Read more… Rob Stevens … Read more
Terry Morgan – Stage Raw With its plot involving the fate of a foreign refugee seeking a new life in America, Jeff Augustin’s Little Children Dream of God couldn’t be timelier. It gets a solid production from the Road Theatre Company in this West Coast premiere and is full of strong performances, but something curiously … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw In the opening scene of Will Arbery’s dark, roundabout dramedy, a family lounges in the living room of their grungy Dallas domicile, munching food and watching TV. The clan consists of Cole, the dad (Dirk Etchison), and his three teenaged kids. Kay Bailey (Arielle Fodor), the serious-minded middle sibling (and, … Read more
Les Spindle – Frontiers L.A. In its West Coast debut, Steven Simoncic’s 2013 portrait of urban gentrification, set in contemporary Chicago, offers intriguing ruminations on the human ramifications of the phenomenon. Read more… Now running through April 3.
Bob Verini – Stage Raw Lisa Loomer writes Issue Plays. She may not set out to do so quite so baldly, but there it is. Her works tend to be identifiable, and tend to last in the memory, as copiously researched treatments of specific ongoing problems in contemporary American life. And, by the way, she … Read more
Deborah Klugman – Stage Raw Like many plays that deal with our mortality, those about dementia can be extraordinarily affecting. They speak to a loss of self nearly as complete and devastating as our physical demise. Read more… David C. Nichols – LA Times The first glimmer of it comes on a Friday. They’ve flown me … Read more