By TAMAR NEUMANN: The story of Merlin and King Arthur has been re-told in a thousand different ways with almost as many different interpretations of each character. Phillip Andrew Bennet Low states, “The value of a . . . good yarn lies . . . not in invention—but re-invention,” and his words readily apply to the…
by SOPHIE KERMAN “If you lose the power to laugh, you lose the power to think.” — Clarence Darrow If you grew up in a radical left-wing household – or if you’ve been to law school – you’ve probably heard of Clarence Darrow, the famed defense attorney whose messy personal life didn’t interfere with saving 102 individuals from…
By TAMAR NEUMANN: Balloonacy, the Children’s Theatre Company’s (CTC) new play for preschoolers, is a delightful little play about a man and a red balloon. While the play is not long (a running time of only 30 minutes—it is designed for children with short attention spans), it manages to capture a range of emotions. This is…
by CHRISTINE SARKES SASSEVILLE Once is an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime theater experience with achingly beautiful melodies, a ridiculously talented cast of triple-threat actors (actor, musician, and singer) and a richly compelling story about falling in love and following your dreams. Winner of eight Tony Awards and an Academy Award for the movie version of “Falling Slowly” (one of…
by SOPHIE KERMAN Charlie Bethel has garnered rave reviews, both locally and nationally, for his one-man adaptations of classic texts from Beowulf to Gilgamesh and, now, The Odyssey. Local critics seem to enjoy listing positive adjectives to describe Bethel’s performance: Dominic Papatola calls him “dazzling”, Ed Huyck says the show is “funny, thrilling, moving, and educational”, and John Olive qualifies Bethel…
By TAMAR NEUMANN: Othello has long been my favorite Shakespeare tragedy. It may not have star-crossed lovers or scorned nephew-sons, but it has one character that outshines everything else—Iago. While I can understand why the play is called Othello, it might be better named Iago: it is Iago who pulls the strings, and without him, there would be little to…
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 CHRISTINE SARKES SASSEVILLE Cyrano, at the Park Square Theatre, offers swoon-inducing romance and swashbuckling action in this modern adaptation by Michael Hollinger. J C Cutler in the title role and Emily Gunyou Halaas, as Cyrano’s love interest Roxane, deliver poignant and tender performances that had many audience members sniffling during several romantic exchanges. The small cast takes on…
by SOPHIE KERMAN Our language has changed quite a bit since 1613, but our sense of humor clearly has not. Sure, there are a whole lot of “forsooth”s in Thomas Middleton‘s A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, but the characters it mocks are still alive and well today: the incessantly chattering gossips, the pretentious scholar spouting verbiage no…
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…
Aisle Say - Twin Cities 