Peeling the Onion of Truth
Christopher Chen’s Caught at Shotgun Players keeps peeling the onion of untruths.
Read my review in the East Bay Times and Mercury News. Read more
Bun in the Oven, Fire in the Loins
Shotgun Players gets uncomfortable with Penelope Skinner’s The Village Bike.
Read my review in the East Bay Times and Mercury News. Read more
Listening to the Bengsons
They’re running out of living, so a young couple decides to live a full 60 years together in the 100 days they have left.
My review of the Bengsons’ sublime indie-rock musical Hundred Days is on KQED Arts. Read more
Sex and Death
Sometimes, no matter how avant-garde a play’s language or structure may be, it can be reduced to a simple thesis statement. Basil Kreimendahl’s Sidewinders, for example, now premiering with the Cutting Ball Theater, boils down to “Binary gender distinctions are overrated.” And Diana Amsterdam’s Carnival Round the Central Figure, produced by Symmetry Theatre Company at Live Oak Theatre, declares in no uncertain terms that people should accept death as part of life and not pretend it isn’t happening.
Solo Plus Five
Monologist Josh Kornbluth brings along another actor and a live band, but Sea of Reeds is still pretty much a monologue. You can read my reviewon KQED Arts.
Blood Red, White and Blue
The presidential debates are upon us, Election Day is just a few weeks away, and two local theater companies are getting into the spirit of the thing by staging gleefully perverse musicals about the U.S. presidency.
