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King LearReviewed by Steven Leigh MorrisWallis Center for the Performing ArtsThrough June 5Shakespeare’s play gets a Wooster Group-ish makeover in John Gould Rubin’s modern dress staging for the Wallis. Tech is omnipresent, almost omniscient. Narrow, vertical panels on both sides of the stage provide screens for Keith Skretch’s projection design, featuring striking images of fires […]
God of CarnageReviewed by Julia StierFoursome ProductionsThrough May 29RECOMMENDED“How many parents, standing up for their children, don’t become infantile themselves?”The Tony Award-winning play, God of Carnage, written by Yasmina Reza and translated by Christopher Hampton, explores how adults handle the fallout from disputes that erupt between their children – sometimes behaving worse than the children […]
The EffectReviewed by Martίn HernándezSixty-Six Productions at The Marilyn Monroe TheatreThrough May 21RECOMMENDEDWelcome to The Institute of Neural Science, where Connie (Jackie Jandrell) and Tristan (Paul Rush) have volunteered for a month-long clinical trial to evaluate a new anti-depressant medication, though neither has depression, a curious requirement for the testing. The two have little in […]
Metamorphoses Reviewed by V CateA Noise WithinThru June 5RECOMMENDEDMyth is a symbolic narrative which reveals within its essence a resonant truth of what it means to be mortal. Myth often deals with issues larger than mundane, everyday happenings; rather, myth attempts to probe the very fabric of the cosmos, to find commonalities within mankind, and to […]
PODCAST: Stages of Our City: Episode 12: Socks Whitmore and Julia Stier Produced by Julia StierIn Episode 12: Julia Socks and Steven discuss “Hadestown” at the Ahmanson; “Blues for an Alabama Sky (just closed at the Taper), “A Death Defying Escape” at the Hudson; “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” at the Geffen; “Bright Half Life” at […]
Three TablesReviewed by Steven Leigh MorrisPadua Playwrights at the Zephyr Theatre Through May 22RECOMMENDEDThe times have caught up to playwright Murray Mednick, now an octogenarian, who has sustained a singular, uncompromising vision in his plays over the course of half a century. The vision is grim, but not without humor. I found myself smiling throughout […]
Tambo & BonesReviewed by Terry MorganKirk Douglas TheatreThrough May 29RECOMMENDEDIf one reads in the press that a new play is a “minstrel show,” it might give one pause about seeing said show. Historically, minstrel shows were racist entertainment in which White people wearing “blackface” makeup depicted African-Americans in a derogatory way. These shows were mostly […]
Bright Half LifeReviewed by Socks WhitmoreThe Road TheatreThrough May 22RECOMMENDEDFor the second show in its 30th anniversary season, the Road Theatre has set its stage for the Los Angeles premiere of Pulitzer Prize nominee Tanya Barfield’s Bright Half Life: a one-act play that bounces around the 45 years of two women’s complicated love story.Armed with […]
