Los Angeles

GIVE UP THE GHOST AND GIVE US WHAT’S REAL The multi-hyphenate J.B. Priestley (Author-Novelist-Playwright-Critic-Essayist-Political Commentator) commented, “Comedy, we may say, is society protecting itself – with a smile.” Priestley’s murder-mystery Dangerous Corner revolves around the late Martin Chatfield and the unraveling effect his death has on the intertwined lives of the six people closest to…

KIDS KILL THE DARNEDEST THINGS Much has been made recently of the physical and psychological dangers of bullying and hazing.   Less is said of their value as a teaching element that makes new members useful to a smooth-running society.   Zero-tolerance policies are frequently abhorred by artistic and creative personalities (who appreciate the value of experimentation…

“ALL THE DISTANCE BETWEEN US IS NOTHING” Los Angeles dance company Diavolo is back at The Broad Stage, remounting their Trajectoire and offering the Southern California premiere of their new piece Transit Space. Trajectoire opens like a sunrise with loud, low drums, two dancers moving almost as one in front of a glowing semicircle.   Their…

GODS AND MONSTERS Oedipus gets all the attention, what with his Freudian mixture of patricide and mommy love, but an arguably much more influential character in the Greek pantheon is the deeply confused Orestes. He didn’t fuck his mother Clytemnestra; he killed her’”and his act of (perhaps) justifiable homicide is woven into countless stories by…

THE LONG MEET CUTE If you’re inclined to think in terms of film noir, you could very easily give playwright Jenelle Riley’s quite charming romantic comedy the subtitle “The Long Meet Cute”:   Her play, A Kind of Love Story, is a love affair that truly takes its time in igniting; the central couple who’s destined…

“YOUNG. SEXY. NEW. AND FULL OF LIFE.” Gob Squad’s Kitchen, playing at REDCAT through Sunday, is an exquisite, provocative piece of experimental, experiential theatre. The performance begins when the doors open and the cast invites the audience on a tour of the set.   Aided by a zigzagging floor map of arrows and lines, one journeys…

UNDER MY SHOE If the comedy in Under My Skin were any more broad, it would require a wider stage than the one at the Pasadena Playhouse.   If the play were any less funny, it would have to wear a black armband.   But it is well-intentioned, and so this blithely degrading show cannot be despised…

THIS RABBIT IS EARLY FOR ITS DATE Keliher Walsh’s new play, Year of the Rabbit, treats with respect and compassion the lives of three families wracked by war.   The gravity of the text and the production illustrate the sober care the author and her director, James Eckhouse, have taken in telling this harrowing story.   But…

CHEKHOV’S GUN, SERLING’S CIGARETTE The most authentic and thoughtful staging of Anton Chekhov I’ve experienced in America didn’t use any Chekhov script you’ve read or seen performed or ever will see.   This Impro Theatre one-night-only production of Serfs in the Field was improvised over two acts’ relaxed mastery, nimbly directed, sublimely performed, and – I…

THREE DEGREES OF SEPARATION A woman asks for a martini in a highball glass and accuses her husband of peeing in the sink: again. He doesn’t cop to it, but doesn’t deny it. The couple seems long married, used to one another, and not particularly happy’”probably in their 60s or early 70s. She’s nursing a…

COLLECTED STORIES: A SNOOZE INDUCING   “WRITE” OF PASSAGE As a critic I hope for one of two things: either a production is fantastic or, to be blunt, it sucks. For me at least, a review of a great show or an awful show practically writes itself: it’s the critiques of the so-so ones that take…

SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL HAS ARRIVED Daniel Serrano’s Roma al final de la Ví­a (Rome at the End of the Line) is a highly recommended diamond-in-the-rough, and the 24th Street Theatre presents its US premiere. Julieta Ortiz and   Norma Angélica are outstanding in their portrayal of women growing up together through life; bonded by their love for…

THE SCHLONG AND SHORT OF IT The great local critic Wenzel Jones, writing about the play “Naked Boys Singing,” (another play in which men happily doffed their clothes to showcase their Full Monties) drolly noted that “for best results” the show “should be seen on a warm night.”   It is  tough to avoid making a similar…

WESTSIDE CONNECTIONS INTEROFFICE MEMO from: Office of Setting Things Up to: Offices of no names; we’re all friends here re: the other night at the Broad We want to start by thanking you all for your hard work, your good work.   You are appreciated.   As you know, we’ve had our first Music & Story event…

THE PEASANTS ARE REVOLTING, NOT THE PRODUCTION Set amidst the teeming, verdant jungles of South India, Encounter is an often compelling dance theatrical production from the Navarasa Dance Theater, a group that has origins in South Asia and India (though the company is currently based in Massachusetts); it is a tale of atrocity, tyranny, and…