Educating our youngsters --- deciding what and what not to teach them --- is a very serious matter. But apparently that news never made its way to playwright Idris Goodwin. For he has taken the subject of education in America today and turned it on its ear, examining the matter from an absurdist perspective in a jaunty little comedy called What’s Best for the Children, now … [Read more...]
‘Rx’: Boca Stage’s gentle skewering of Big Pharma delivered with dispatch
Workplace depression is not an officially recognized medical condition, but that does not stop Schmidt Pharma from trying to develop a lucrative cure for what ails so many of us. That includes Meena Pierotti, managing editor of American Cattle and Swine magazine, a trade publication so dreary that depression seems the logical response to employment there. Meena is the … [Read more...]
Shakespeare Fest sticks to basics in impressive ‘Twelfth Night’
I never thought I would be able to use this word to describe a Palm Beach Shakespeare Festival production, but its latest take on Twelfth Night – the company’s fourth version – is “conventional.” In a good way. Perhaps producer/director Seth Trucks had no interest in setting the plot-initiating shipwreck on Mars or turning it into an air crash on a South Pacific island, as … [Read more...]
‘Villainous Company’ improbable, but actresses make it compelling
Are you in the mood for an old-fashioned parlor game of “who’s conning whom?” None of the three female characters in Victor L. Cahn’s Villainous Company are to be trusted, you see, and unless they are not what they claim to be, a lot of their dialogue rings false. Or perhaps it is playwright Cahn who is doing the conning and we in the audience are the conned. … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: May 12-13
Film: So you want to take your mom to the movies for Mother’s Day, but she has already seen the Avengers flick? Boy, have we got a deal for you. This Sunday at 10 a.m., there will be free screenings of a sing-along version of Mamma Mia!, the ripoff of Buena Sera, Mrs. Campbell with songs by the Swedish rock group ABBA. It is happening all across the country, but the South … [Read more...]
Fine performances lift new ‘Accident’ at Primal Forces
“Write what you know,” goes the old adage to playwrights, so Lydia Stryk wrote a play about the aftermath of a debilitating car accident. Like her fictional character Libby, Stryk was the victim of a collision between herself and an automobile driver. Or as Libby puts it with her dark, bitter humor, she met Anton by accident. In An Accident, the latest area … [Read more...]
Vulgar, shocking ‘Reservoir Dolls’ brings Tarantino to Pompano
By Dale King Reservoir Dolls, Outré Theatre Company’s live stage performance inspired by Quentin Tarantino’s 1992 film, Reservoir Dogs, casts female actors in the roles portrayed in the movie by men. While the concept of imagining how women would act in similar ultra-violent situations is intriguing, the show – playing at the Pompano Beach Cultural Center through Sunday — is … [Read more...]
Theater in 2016: The year’s 10 best
The best in theater for 2016 throughout South Florida yields a healthy mix of new work and classic scripts. Of course, any such list is by definition a subjective opinion, so your mileage may vary, but by any measure, it was a good year at the theater: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Kravis on Broadway) — The five-time Tony Award winner from the … [Read more...]
Quirky, brilliant ‘Random World’ engages at FAU Theatre Lab
“Connect, Georges,” says Dot to a brilliant, but obtuse pointillist painter in the musical Sunday in the Park with George. And in a similar way, theatergoers at Steven Dietz’s wise and witty comedy of missed connections, This Random World, will want to shout to the characters to open their eyes and understand what links them. Dietz’s intricately structured script, now … [Read more...]