Category: Reviews

Hmong Bollywood by Pangea World Theater performing at InterMedia Arts

Bollywood is the common term for the lengthy (they are usually 3+ hours with intermission) Hindi language extravaganzas made in India.  These movies, also called masala (i.e., spicy) films, feature genre-mashing combinations of melodrama, romance, love triangles.  They contain nasty…

Spunk at Penumbra Theatre

Review written by Janet Preus and John Olive. Penumbra Theatre came charging back to life last night with a production of Spunk, an adaptation of three stories by the great Zora Neale Hurston, written for the stage by George C,…

Yellow Fever by Mu Performing Arts at the Guthrie’s Dowling Studio Theater

The Guthrie’s Dowling Studio Theater is the site for Mu Performing Arts fresh, new production of their founder and artistic director’s play, Yellow Fever. Although it’s been thirty years since the play’s premiere – and the W. W. II-era internment…

Elemeno Pea at Mixed Blood Theatre

Money porn. There’s a long tradition in American storytelling of asking audiences to gawk at the shallow goings-on of the ultra-rich.  The tradition began in the 20s with the work of Edith Wharton, came into its own during the Depression…

The Seven by Ten Thousand Things Theater Company

Ten Thousand Things’ (TTT) Artistic Director Michelle Hensley has a way of spotting the timeless themes in a play and grounding her company in them. In this case, she served as producer, but her vision and focus was surely guiding…

Other Desert Cities at the Guthrie Theater

The past is ineluctably and achingly present in Jon Robin Baitz‘s moving (and occasionally frustrating) drama, Other Desert Cities (at the Guthrie through March 24).  The Wyeths, Polly and Lyman, have left smoggy L.A., chockfull of ego and intrigue and…

Shadowlands by Open Window Theatre

William Nicholson‘s Shadowlands (Open Window Theatre, through March 10) is a modest play – and I intend this to be high praise.  It contains no screechy over-the-top theatrics, no check-me-out-ain’t-I-clever acting, no self-consciously “original” story-lines.  Rather, Nicholson simply and effectively…