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DUALITY IN A NOISE WITHIN’S CYMBELINE Are women faithful to the men they love? Or are they so weak-willed and inconstant as to be easily seduced by another? While many writers and dramatists have explored these questions over the centuries, Shakespeare addresses them as just one important strand in the complicated plot of his late…

SEMI-CIRCLE The drawing room comedy has fallen out of fashion over the years. These extremely well-made, light, sophisticated plays center around members of polite society whose lives unravel in a literal drawing room during otherwise civilized weekends in the country. Featuring wit and verbal banter among wealthy, leisured, upper-class Brits, the form eventually morphed into…

AN OCTOBER UNSURPRISE Scott Zigler learned to direct theater from David Mamet, which is like having David Ortiz teach you how to pitch for the major leagues.   A designated hitter thinks every pitch should come right over the plate, and may be excused for only paying attention to the elements of the game that concern…

OFF AND ON Once again, I talk to a troupe of foreign artists, and once again, apart from the art, there’s an utter lack of coherent understanding between their world and mine.   It’s especially funny since so many Americans claim to believe that we’re the least sophisticated and least cross-culturally educated of the industrialized nations.  …

HAUNTED BY EXPOSITION Last October, Hollywood stuntman Jon Braver put up Delusion, a much-celebrated high-end haunted house.   One of Mr. Braver’s purposes with this project, which he wrote, directed, and produced, was to correct what he saw as a tired tendency toward “jump-out-of-the-corner” type scares in the haunted houses he visited.   He added narrative to…

MAID IN HOLLYWOOD The history of people of color on the screen is complicated, to say the least. The great Hattie McDaniel was hurt and bewildered by criticism from some in her own community who felt she should turn down maid and mammy roles. “Why should I complain about making $700 a week playing a…

IN LOVE OR IN LOVE WITH BEING IN LOVE Playwright Kristen Vangsness’ intriguing, but ultimately frustrating comedy features as its center a gal who makes the mistake of confusing love with, well, let’s charitably call it the desire “to be” in love.   It is what folks brought up in civilized company would call “passion”’”but it’s…

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…