Zastrozzi: the play is not the thing, the production is
Zastrozzi: The Master of Discipline is like a dream of cool masculinity — as conjured by a deeply reactionary 14-year-old straight boy. Consider the hero of George F. Walker’s 1977 play, which draws heavily on the 1810 novel by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Having killed over...
Jerusalem: England’s green chaotic land
In 2011 in a forest glade somewhere in Wiltshire, England, lives Johnny “Rooster” Byron in a trailer surrounded by trash. A middle-aged waster, he hosts alcohol- and drug-laced parties for the local teenagers. There’s a new housing estate nearby and the town council...
Chicken Girl: clucking obscure, clucking intriguing
Playwright Derek Chan speaks a private artistic language. It’s frustrating, but I like the way it sounds. In Chicken Girl, there’s a whole lot of fantasy going on. Chicken Girl dresses in a poultry costume to hand out fliers for Uncle Chan’s fried chicken shack. A...
A Steady Rain: drenched in noir
> > >This is a guest review by David Johnston If you stabbed A Steady Rain in the jugular, it would bleed cigarette smoke and malt whiskey. Seven Tyrants Theatre is closing their season with a week-long remount of last year's detective thriller duet. Keith...
Matilda the Musical survives its director
Matilda the Musical survives Daryl Cloran’s direction, even though he makes a good stab at bludgeoning it to death. The material itself is fantastic. Based on Roald Dahl’s 1988 novel, Matilda tells the story of a bright, sensitive little girl — whose parents despise...
Other Inland Empires: surfing in shallow water
Formally innovative, Other Inland Empires also looks like it’s also going to be theatrically and thematically rewarding — at first. Writer and director Julie Hammond presents three characters: she has written herself into the piece as a narrator; her grandmother, who...
Lady Parts: I like ’em
Lady Parts is a feminist revue that includes sketch comedy, personal testimony, and a whole lot of political fuck-you-ness. It’s hilarious, it’s necessary, and it's so welcome. Lady Parts wields transgression like a stick that it’s using to smash the piñata of the...
The Cake: bittersweet, delicious
I’m so grateful. Pacific Theatre’s production of The Cake is coming at the right time — at the necessary time. With Alabama’s virtual ban on abortion just the latest in states’ restrictions of female autonomy, the Trump administration’s assault on LGBTQ rights, and...
The Fitting Room: the pieces don’t fit
Ellery Lamm, who wrote The Fitting Room, shows promise as a playwright, but that promise hasn’t ripened yet. In this script, she presents a parallel set of crises. In the first, Henry, who’s 13, has dared his friend Noah to stand on the ice in the middle of a hockey...
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