The title alone – The Underground Railroad Game – gives you hint of the slippery slide towards impropriety and breach of all kinds of correctness about to happen. And that’s not even the half of it.
Archives for April 9, 2018
Tonya Beckman is a sultry, playful Don Juan in Taffety Punk’s production (review)
Molière’s Don Juan—the 17th Century tale of a rakish nobleman whose insatiable libido and incorrigible charm lead him from town to town, deceiving (and deflowering) damsel after damsel to his ultimate doom—is nothing if not timeless. And (dare we say) timely in the #metoo era. Yet Taffety Punk Theatre Company keeps it light and playful […]
Review: August Wilson’s Two Trains Running at Arena Stage
Seeing Two Trains Running at Arena Stage marks the halfway point of my consummation of playwright August Wilson’s decalogue of dramas expressing the 20th century black experience in America. Viewing Wilson’s Century Cycle—each play is assigned a decade from the 1900s to 1990s—has been one of the great pleasures of my theatergoing life. In past […]
Review: New opera Florida from UrbanArias
With Florida, the world premiere of an opera by composer Randall Eng and librettist Donna Di Novelli, Urban Arias just got bigger. It’s not just that the piece of ninety-five minutes didn’t feel like the company’s proverbial “quickie.” The robust seventeen-person orchestra included a gorgeously featured brass section and contained some serious licks on drums […]
Gay comedy Top and Bottom (review)
Rainbow Theatre Project’s production of Kevin Michael West’s comedy Top and Bottom contains total male nudity—of both the physical and emotional varieties. What begins as a bondage-filled romp between two strangers quickly evolves into something even more vulnerable. It’s a journey that’s funny and cringe-filled, if not entirely free of a few bumps in the road.
Anything goes in Faction of Fools’ 10th season
Murder. The conquest of France. Learning to become an actor. And food. Lots and lots of food. Gut-busting portions of foods; enough to last a decade.