There’s a famous maxim, ofttimes attributed to Mel Brooks, that tragedy is when I slip on a banana peel; comedy is when you slip on it. We can polish this little gem about human nature to a harder, more specifically theatrical gleam by adding: “But when we both slip on…
There are two kinds of despair in literature–mature and immature. Immature despair is a cry for attention disguised as a suicide attempt–it’s easily dismissed, even satirized, because the author cannot contain his or her narcissism for long. What might begin eloquently as a lament for the fragile human condition eventually…
Since there’s no theater district in this town, the intrepid Dallas stagehound must sometimes endure a symphony of city noises–auto traffic, low-flying planes, construction equipment, etc.–to get a fix. But based on my recent experience at Theater Too, the small but surprisingly effective basement space of Theatre Three in the…
I’ve long ago gotten over people’s surprised (and sometimes disdainful) reaction when I argue at parties and dinner conversations that Dallas maintains a fertile theater scene despite neglect from the city at large. I’ve come to understand that there are two kinds of people who ignore plays in this city–those…
When I was 12 years old, I went to my first rock concert–at Reunion Arena. My sister and I bought tickets for seats against the back wall of the first balcony–undoubtedly one of the worst deals you can get at Dallas’ almost-dormant downtown arena. Yet the assault of funny-smelling smoke;…
“I know how the story goes,” says Angus (Michael A. Corolla), a perpetually hopeful if not always realistic Englishman who spent his childhood watching adventures on the movie screen. “They tell each other deep secrets, and the power relationships begin to change.” Angus is talking to three co-workers with whom…
My poor planning occasionally triggers a situation that every critic should experience–I sometimes actually pay for admission to the shows I review. When I don’t have time to make the advance call necessary for comps, I just dig into my own pocket. Tragic as this scenario is, do hold your…
You say your company is doing a play about the intersection of the sacred and the sexual? Protagonists whose myopic love challenges centuries of religious dogma in a foolhardy but passionate stand for the transcendent power of eros? Well, you’ve got this critic’s undivided attention and best wishes for success…
When you consider that Dallas-based playwright Angela Wilson mines very familiar territory in her two one-acts, Black Velvet and George and Scheherazade, sad, sad, sad, the little gems she extracts in her dirt-covered fingers are all the more surprising. Like all playwrights who attempt to cull the dramatic from the…
Having recently seen the same Samuel Beckett one-act performed by two different Dallas theater companies for two different audiences, a comparison is in order–and would be particularly helpful for neophyte theatergoers. Three weeks back, a large group of people, mostly heterosexual couples, attended a performance of Bucket Productions’ For Whom…
It says a lot about New Theatre Company’s collective skills that a play about boredom should come across so forcefully. Yet Keith Reddin’s Dallas premiere of Nebraska twiddles its thumbs with such homicidal intensity, the thwarted lives of the various couples it portrays are rendered from the inside out, all…
Laurel Hoitsma, a company member of Undermain Theatre and actress about town, called a couple weeks ago to make a request unusual to these ears: “Please don’t review the new show I’m in.” Had I finally bored a Dallas actor to the breaking point? After being reassured that this disinvitation…
At this writing, I’ve seen two performances of the Undermain production of writer-director Erik Ehn’s The Sound and the Fury–a Wednesday preview and last Saturday’s opening night. I must admit I didn’t start to enjoy the show until I’d kicked it around in my head during the interval. This made…
The young heroine of The Holy Inquiry, a United States premiere presented by Teatro Dallas, makes two mistakes early on in the play–she learns how to read, and she saves a Jesuit priest from drowning in the river after his canoe capsizes. These may not sound like screw-ups, but for…
What, the cynical historian might ask, can a play written in 413 B.C. say about the 1997 us? Whatever it tells us–and if you pay close attention to the text, placarded with disciplined but unaffected readings in the Gryphon Players’ new mounting of Euripides’ Electra, you’ll find much that’s familiar–you…
If there’s one rule to staging Sam Shepard’s wildly eccentric plays, it’s that the cast must have a sense of humor. The poetry in Shepard’s enormous canon (45 plays, among which are 11 Obie winners) has hoodwinked more than a few actors and directors into taking Shepard, as crazy as…
Scarcely have I felt two conflicting emotions so intensely as during All’s Well That Ends Well, the finale of Dallas Theater Center’s 1996-’97 season. I was soothed and startled, delighted and disturbed by the tension between this crisp, stately staging by Richard Hamburger and the acidic sentiments of Shakespeare’s 1602…
Only recently have I been able to articulate why the stage musical so often encounters a “Keep Out” sign on the door of my heart. I’m an essentially sentimental person who can coo over empty packages when they’re wrapped in original style, which is precisely what Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner…
When my eyes landed on the definition of “arabesque” in Webster’s Dictionary, a thought hit me with the force of a quick, hard wedgie: I’m a fraud. I was researching to write this review of one program in Deep Ellum Opera Theatre’s March series, A Month of Dance. Webster’s was…
God bless the children who attended the same Saturday matinee performance of The Yellow Boat that I did. During a question-and-answer session after the show, they demonstrated that you don’t just lose your innocence when you become an adult–if you’re not careful, you can also shed a certain clear, tough…
I must say that A Rose By Any Other Name, the 1997 season opener for Teatro Dallas, surprised me at regular intervals throughout its 90 minutes without intermission. There were enough changes in tone and texture–not to mention a rich performance by one of its stars that didn’t begin to…
Since the blues is probably America’s greatest musical contribution to world culture, it’s not surprising that both African-American and Anglo-American artists have attempted to translate the genre’s quixotic vibe to arts both performing and static. We shouldn’t be surprised that so many such experiments have failed (including Toni Morrison’s weakest…
