Paula Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive is a tough play because it takes on the unsettling subject of childhood sexual abuse. Despite the difficult subject matter, the Red Masquers—a theatre group at Duquesne University—gave an excellent performance, directed by Justin Sines, with really strong acting throughout. The protagonist and primary narrator of How I …
Continue reading How I Learned to Drive, by Paula Vogel–14 Nov. 2016
This is the fourth, maybe fifth show I’ve seen the Rustic Mechanicals perform, and this is the first one I would say was really good. My major critique of the Mechanicals has been the tendency to painfully overact, but with this cast and for this show, they (largely) resisted that tendency. For the first time …
Continue reading The Merchant of Venice, by William Shakespeare–9 Oct. 2016
David Mamet’s Race seems to be a play carefully crafted to make every audience member uncomfortable—whites, African Americans, Hispanics, men, women. No one is spared in Mamet’s play. The play centers on the law firm of Jack and Henry, who end up (not entirely by choice) defending the wealthy, white Charles after he is accused …
They say everything is bigger in Texas, and Del Shores’ Sordid Lives goes big—big hair, big personalities, big problems, and big laughs. The MT Pockets production of this black comedy about white trash brought a bit of Texas to the West Virginia stage. The play revolves around the funeral for Peggy Ingram, an elderly woman …
When you have a good script and very good actors, community theatre can produce some really special moments. And that’s precisely what happened at MT Pocket’s production of Bruce Graham’s Stella & Lou, directed by Vickie Trickett. With a funny, heart-breaking story, and three wonderful performers, the production was a treat. Stella & Lou focuses …
As everyone knows, Romeo & Juliet is the greatest love story ever told. Officially. Of course, the reality of the play is slightly less romantic and more teen suicide-y, but such is life. Or death, in Romeo and Juliet’s case. One of Shakespeare’s most famous plays, Romeo & Juliet tells the story of two young …
Continue reading Romeo & Juliet, by William Shakespeare–17 July 2016
This review starts with the same disclaimer as my last Rustic Mechanicals review: I really like the project of a dedicated Shakespeare touring troupe for West Virginia. I find their mission basically admirable. Their performance of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night was better than their productions of The Tempest or Much Ado About Nothing, so I was …
Continue reading Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare–10 July 2016
I’ve seen two productions of Neil Labute’s The Shape of Things, but this was the first time I had seen Fat Pig (or any other Labute play) produced. Labute seems to be a playwright of odd, dysfunctional relationships and the difficulty of finding genuine connections with people in a society that values people for their …
Peter Tolan’s Pillow Talk is a fun little comedy that explores the contours of sexuality and anxiety in modern US culture. The play spends one night with Aaron (Sean Marko) and Doug (Mack Kale Jr.) as they share a bed on the first night of their cross-country road trip. While both men are heterosexual, their …
The MAC produced the opening run of Travis Teffner’s Over Before It Began, which unfortunately seems more like a decision based on the close working relationship between Teffner, David Beach (who directed), and the MAC, than a reflection of the quality of the play itself. The acting was fine, but the play itself is plagued …
Continue reading Over Before It Began, by Travis Teffner–21 May 2016
Phillip Zapkin 