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by Karen Tortora-Lee on February 26, 2012
“How long does it take to become a true New Yorker?”
Obviously playwright Chris Harcum goes right for the tough questions in his play, Rabbit Island, currently playing in the Kraine Theatre as part of the 2012 Frigid Festival.
When we first meet Alex (Ethan Angelica) he is nervously pinging around his therapist’s office, a desperate Canadian transplant who simply wants to feel like he belongs in this town. “Some say it’s when you have your first private moment in public …” he goes on to explain, but I would offer that simply unleashing this tirade of neuroses to a therapist qualifies him for at least one click on his “True New Yorker” Punch-card.
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by Michelle Augello-Page on February 26, 2012
‘T’il Love Do Us Part is a dark play about love, life, and death, written by Andrew Hall and directed by Cameron J. Marcotte. Part absurd, part realism, and part cautionary tale, the whole of this play centers upon the relationship between John and Virginia Walker. The audience is taken on a journey through their seventy year relationship, which begins and ends with death. After a chance meeting at the same cemetery where John’s father and Virginia’s mother are being buried, the two characters find each other, each alone and lost, desperate to connect with another person. A casket holds the center of the stage as a constant reminder of death, as the two characters try to heal, to love, and to live in the fractured and flawed world between them.
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by The Happiest Medium on February 25, 2012
The Happiest Medium Review by Guest Contributor Linnea Covington
Afternoon Tea With Jane Austen (Photographer credit: Chris J. Hing)
Most little girls grow up reading the works of Jane Austen, be it Emma, Sense and Sensibility, or Pride and Prejudice. Some boys also read her stories, but usually that’s a school assignment. But, no matter how you digest this early 19th Century author, one thing remains consistent – you never learn much about her actual life. In Tali Brady’s one-woman play Afternoon Tea With Jane Austen, the Montreal-based actress and playwright attempts to share this history with you.
It’s an excellent way to become acquainted with Austen, and while Brady wrote a wonderfully fluid play chock full of personal details, fetching narratives, and historical information about the author, she doesn’t always execute her role as Austen well. The show started out slow as she bumbled around the who’s-who in Austen’s family, and even though she said herself that it was boring, it still shouldn’t have been. This isn’t because of the subject matter but more of Brady reciting her lines like she’s dictating instead of storytelling.
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by Michelle Augello-Page on February 25, 2012
Initium / Finis is “a sensual tale of violence and revolution born in a futuristic metropolis. Theatre Reverb combines media, red-light cabaret, live music, Judeo-Christian and Hindu myth, and classical Indian dance-theatre to envelop spectators in a lush sci-fi noir.” This Frigid Festival performance is an excerpt from a larger work, which will be two hours in length and is scheduled to be presented in 2013.
Initium / Finis is an ambitious project, carried by Kristin Arnesen’s performance throughout, as the story expands in many layers, as well as many directions, including an interesting sci-fi premise, sub-plots of intrigue, and cabaret-style entertainment. The play is supported by live music, visual images and written information in montages of video, and the use of screens to paint pictures with light and shadow. Kristin Arnesen pulls all of these elements and more into a riveting performance; she is a delight to watch on stage as she illustrates the story, demonstrating her evident talents as a performer.
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by Geoffrey Paddy Johnson on February 25, 2012
Suzen Murakoshi‘s self-authored, one-woman performance, Breathe, Love, Repeat, presently playing at Under St. Marks as part of this year’s Frigid New York Festival, is an autobiographical recounting of her last days with her mother. For anybody this might represent a daunting theme, vast, self-examining, possibly too much. But Murakoshi has an imaginary alter ego to call upon in the face of such a challenge – a samurai super daughter – and unhesitatingly she jumps in and grabs the bull by the horns. Why or whence came this super daughter is never made clear, she just magically appears in the form of Murakoshi heroically brandishing an invisible sword above her head in full spotlight. She is the pluck, the resistance, and later the resilience that help carry the author through the ordeal of watching her mother gradually sicken and decline. She is some sort of Asian folkloric warrior princess, alive to the existence of a spirit realm, knowledgeable of the proper respects and tributes owed the demons that haunt us.
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by Michelle Augello-Page on February 25, 2012
Judge, Yuri, & Executioner is a simple, straightforward, character-driven play, and therein lies its brilliance. Written by Ed Malin, directed by DeLisa White, and starring Mac Rogers, this play is the work of three formidable talents. Incredibly strong writing and stellar acting carry the play forward, captivating the audience with wit, humor, and intelligence, as the character of Zach searches his past to find meaning in his present, illuminating the narrative with wonderfully told and expertly woven stories from his life.
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on February 24, 2012
“This is not your father’s burlesque show,” intones host Atlanta Georgia (Marlena Kalm) to the assemblage who stare at the three preening women who are outfitted in sky-high heels, racy bodices and flirty skirts of the schoolgirl-gone-bad-kilt and tutu variety. With glittery winks and flicking hips these three women ooze dangerous sex appeal and edgy one-liners (I’m like a happy meal … I come with toys). They are daring and flirty and dirty and in control – demanding that the squeamish leave the building so that they can get on with the show. “We know how you like it …” they taunt, “And we know why you keep it a secret from Wifey.”
Welcome to Daughters of Lot (written by Alexis Roblan and directed by Rachel Kerry) where the Bible Belt meets the Garter Belt, where Feminism has as many meanings as Eskimos have words for snow and where women run the gamut from young and innocent to young and jaded. If you’re looking for a man here you’ll find him only when he’s being channelled by one of the women, when he’s being serviced (unseen) by one of his daughters backstage, or when you look to your left at the guy sitting next to you.
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by The Happiest Medium on February 24, 2012
The Happiest Medium Review by Guest Contributor Linnea Covington
If you have ever had dreams of your dolls coming to life and doing a sexy strip tease, this show is for you. Produced by two-time FringeNYC winning performer and playwright Cyndi Freeman with storyteller Brad Lawrence, both whom are burlesque performers, Scratch & Pitz Burlesque and Variety Hour proved a comical hour of pretty girls, awkward men, song, and a tantalizing strip-off between our heroine and the Devil. That’s right, the Devil. Played by Lawrence, who goes by Handsome Brad in the burlesque world, the Devil comes on stage dressed to the nines with the intention of garnering a few souls for his collection. What he didn’t reckon was facing off against Cherry Pitz, played by Freeman, a pink puffy-wigged aspiring variety show host who is a combination of Lady Gaga and Fran Drescher with just a splash of Jersey Shore.
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on February 23, 2012
The characters of this show may be tiny, a little wooden, and come off as a little stiff but Poe-Dunk: A Matchbox Entertainment is anything but rigid. In fact, this innovative, charming, engaging show by Playlab NYC directed by John Pieza is a lively piece of theatre thanks to the man behind the matches – Kevin P. Hale.
Hale conceived this show which can be though of as a trip at break-neck speed along the autobahn of Edgar Allan Poe works (in the course of an hour over 30 Poe works are mentioned, performed or touched upon). Hale is also the sole performer, voicing all the characters and maneuvering scores of itty-bitty matchstick puppets around their eensy-weensy sets. Don’t worry, though, thanks to a projector every microscopic bit of theatre is visible to the audience and there’s not a bad seat in the house.
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on February 16, 2012
Wendy Herlich is many things, but “awkward” is not one of them. In her new show An Evening of Awkward Romance currently playing at The Tank Ms. Herlich proves that she is not only a gifted writer with the ability to create short sketches which manage to be sweet, funny and (yes) awkward all at once, but she is also a deft comedic actress who can play any number of roles ranging from whimsical to deadpan with equal results: an audience that finds itself erupting in laughter as one scene after the next plays out.
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