By LIZ BYRON. The tragedy of Detroit is its relatability. There are far too many people who will relate to this story of broken promises and lost dreams. At the same time, it is not a depressing play; its strength comes from its ability to look into these dark subjects and find hope. Detroit follows…
By LIZ BYRON. Precious Little is an ambitious play; it explores the manner in which languages grow, evolve, and die, and the ways in which people communicate across languages, within the same language, and without language at all. It deals with single parenthood, the prospect of raising a developmentally challenged child, and the realities of caring for…
By LIZ BYRON As a self-identified pacifist and feminist, I was interested in the prospect of hearing women soldier’s perspectives on the war in Iraq. And as I’ll admit that my knowledge of life in the US armed forces is very much limited to major news headlines and Hollywood blockbusters, I was hoping that History Theatre‘s…
As the lights dimmed in the Bryant Lake Bowl theatre, and Seth Lepore started his performance, I was confused. Lepore sat on stage, nervously glancing around the audience, making disjointed comments about being in Antarctica. The audience was laughing — because this was an inside joke I didn’t get? Because they were uncomfortable? Because they…
By LIZ BYRON In some ways it is unfortunate that Diana Son’s play Stop Kiss is as relevant today as it was when it was first performed in 1998. Fourteen years later, and it is still not unthinkable that a person be attacked and beaten for being (or even just appearing to be) LGBTQ. And yet the very…
by LIZ BYRON What would you get if you were to mix extreme sports and traditional theatre? No need to do an experiment; Theatre Unbound has already done so, and the result is their annual event 24:00:00 Xtreme Theatre Smackdown. A tradition since 2001, the Smackdown is a fast-paced, intense experience: a mere 24 hours…
by LIZ BYRON At first glance, Leaves might seem like a confusing mishmash that could go very wrong. Finding its inspiration in the poetry of American great Walt Whitman, and borrowing large swaths of his work, the people of Savage Umbrella have created a play that is part drama, part music, part poetry, moving back and forth between Whitman’s words and…
by LIZ BYRON Who has a bear-fighting love interest, a crossdressing sister, a father addicted to gambling, a trio of near-identical suitors, a major case of indecision, and some seriously fancy fur coats? Arabella does. The titular character of the Richard Strauss’ opera (libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal) must fumble her way through some pretty major cases of miscommunication,…
by LIZ BYRON Brahman/i: A One-Hijra Stand-Up Comedy Show is one of a trilogy of plays by local playwright Aditi Brennan Kapil being premiered by Mixed Blood Theatre. The series is called Displaced Hindu Gods, and also includes pieces The Chronicles of Kalki and Shiv; all three plays are based around the concept of the…
The 2013-2014 season at the Guthrie Theater‘s Wurtele Thrust Stage opens with a production of the Russian classic Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov. It’s a fairly safe bet, since the play has enjoyed considerable popularity and critical acclaim since it first debuted in Moscow in 1899. This is with good reason; Chekhov‘s story is comic enough to be entertaining, and dramatic enough…
Aisle Say - Twin Cities 