Leo Emerson

WHEN IT RAINS, IT POURS An ambitious, sometimes mesmerizing meditation on catastrophe takes big risks— and occasionally loses its footing Years ago, I argued with a friend over whether Cormac McCarthy was too difficult a novelist. My friend found his prose dense, confusing, and hostile, but I insisted that McCarthy was actually training us. It’s…

PURSUIT OF TOO MUCH HAPPINESS At Zach Theatre, Suzan-Lori Parks’ ambitious play-within-a-play has plenty to argue about, but its self-consciousness too often gets in the way of its drama. The play’s the thing—until it isn’t. It was 1997 when Annette Gordon-Reed published her book Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy. Since then, Gordon-Reed…

A TRIP WORTH TAKING A mushroom-fueled journey through family memory finds wisdom in the chaos If there’s ever a time to take mushrooms, it’s when your Tía offers them to you. “I feel like I’m disappearing,” Ixq’anil laments to her aunt, Adela. Worried for her future in America, she watches as I.C.E. and its supporters…

The success of Hyde Park Theatre’s Mi Casa Es Su Teatro (A dangerously domestic DIY fringe fest) — lies in its ability to showcase the symbiotic relationship between art and community. The works presented this year — ranging from the polished dramaturgy of Bradley Michalakis to the improvisational spirit of Drew and Vivian’s Recommended For…

POIROT TRIES STANDUP — CAN HE FIND THE LAUGHS? Hercule Poirot, Belgium’s preeminent detective, makes a bold and comic appearance at Austin Playhouse in Steven Dietz’s Peril in the Alps, a follow-up to his Murder on the Links, both theatrical reimaginings drawn loosely from Poirot Investigates, Agatha Christie’s 1924 collection of short stories, and the…