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Archive: September, 2011
The premise is uproarious: An Austin troupe pretends to be legendary actor thespians who studied under the harsh guru tutelage of “Stella Burden,” the reclusive legend cast in the mold of Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg with a touch of Chris Burden-like savagery to her “Approach.” The goal of the fragile troupe is to finish “Burden”’s version of A Streetcar Named Desire — the one without the characters of Stanley Mitch, Blanche and Stella — without stressing itself into disarray. They freak and fold while promoting risk and personal romances amongst the cast while welcoming a tiger into their midst (because wouldn’t a tiger eating that Salesman be more interesting?). By the end, they perform a delicate, stirring elegantly-lit movement-based version of Streetcar that would’ve made “Burden” proud.
Continues Sept. 4, 3 p.m., WilmaTheater, 237 S. Broad St. MORE INFO HERE.
It’s 1786, and botanist Andre Michaux and his assistant, Pierre-Paul Saunier, are discovering the Garden State’s delights on Louis XVI’s dime — er, franc. It’s 1805, and Empress Josephine is puttering around in her own theoretical garden. They meet. That they’re separated by an ocean, 19 years and the French Revolution doesn’t keep them from bonding enthusiastically over all things Quercus and Oxycoccus, or from spreading their good cheer. But take a tip from the plants: Those who watch the play from the sunny side of the garden will wilt faster than those in the shade.
Through Sept. 17, free, Jefferson Garden, American Philosophical Society, 104 South 5th St. MORE INFO HERE.
Candra Kennedy (who also wrote/directed the fantastic Rails in Fringe ’09) finds melodrama in the least likely places — in this case, the day-to-day lives of the titular microorganisms (scientifically, tardigrades) and the professional wranglings of the scientists who study them. Here are two parallel, quasi-archetypal narratives: a quest saga starring three plucky, adorable microbe puppets and a laboratory power struggle featuring the always-dynamic Kate Black-Regan as a gleefully demented, thumbless mad microbiologist. Act I ends with a chorus line of dancing thumbs, and by the second act, as gravity and sanity lose their grip, things rocket past creatively campy to utterly, transcendently bizarre.
Runs through Sept. 16, 7 p.m, $10, Circle of Hope, 1125 S. Broad St. MORE INFO HERE.
The Greek Theatre Project (Iris Theatre company) wasn’t overly didactic, thankfully, but rather a program of dance set to music of Dinah Washington and other ’70s R&B artists, not exactly Greek, but according to the program the dancers represented Cassandra, Atalanta, Psyche, Pandora, Eros, Hippomenes and Epimetheus (whew). It was a little tricky unless you were up on your Greek myths. Thank goodness for the dancer who picked up a box and opened it — Pandora for sure. The Broad Street Ministry setting with high ceiling and large open space for audience to be right up with the performers works well. Opa!!
Continues Sept. 10, noon and 5 p.m., $10, Broad Street Ministry, 315 S. Broad St. MORE INFO HERE.
The Fringe provides a platform for seldom-seen work, like Sam Shepard and Joseph Chaikin’s Savage/Love and Tongues, two monologues that together run less than an hour. Russ Widdall performs both with intensity and humor, partnered with (not just “accompanied by”) Mike “DJ Butterface” Bazini, who provides a fascinating continuous soundscape that makes these late-’70s abstractions feel modern, completing director Ryder Thornton’s seamless bond of words, motion, and sound. Beautifully lit and intimately set, they’re a soaring soul plunge.
Through Sept 17, $20, Symmetry Dance Studio, 1923 Chestnut St. MORE INFO HERE.
Director/writer/stager Thaddeus Phillips’ usually hectic semi-comic multi-media experience (e.g. El Conquistador) this time comes with a delicious sense of lonely rumination and calm. Carl Sagan (via his Cosmos television series), an elastic troupe of movement-thespians (in particular the quirkily humorous Lee Ann Etzold and the quietly dignified Makoto Hirano) and an audience seated on the Prince’s stage head confidently into the deep. That the deep concerns matters of the heart as well as the battle between snobby intellectualism and nature’s intuitions is what makes the weirdly funny Optics tick. Or swim.
Runs through Sept. 11, $25, Prince Music Theatre, 1412 Chestnut St. MORE INFO HERE.
Fin Kennedy’s drama, performed by Luna Theater Company, poses a cool idea, in several senses: creating a new identity intrigues, but we can’t warm up to Charlie (David Stranger), who’s so fucked up that jettisoning his life becomes necessary. Moreover, Gregory Campbell’s production has a great high-tech, video-screen coolness. Given Charlie’s fate, maybe it’s for the best that we don’t love him, but his journey — realized by a great ensemble playing multiple roles — is a fascinating plunge into the nature of identity in the modern world. “You can change the shell,” Charlie’s told, “but you’ve still got to fill it.”
Through Sept. 18, $20, Playground at the Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St. MORE INFO HERE.
Comedic soap-opera Carthaginians tells the story of seven souls trying to find themselves again after Ireland’s Bloody Sunday in 1972. Set, and staged, in a cemetery, three women hope to raise the dead lost in riot while three men try to rediscover their loyalties to church, state, and themselves. The piece is erratic and dramatic, dragging from a scene of poetic togetherness to sudden over-the-top outbursts. The writing is better suited for a BBC miniseries than an evening sit in a cemetery lot. But who minds an excuse to sit in outside on a beautiful late-summer’s evening?
Sept. 3, 4, 9, 10, 11 and 17, Gloria Dei (Old Swedes’) Church, 916 S. Swanson St.; Sept. 16, Laurel Hill Cemetery, 3822 Ridge Ave.; all shows at 6 p.m., $20. MORE INFO HERE.
Alison King’s entrance — sporting a towering bouffant and neon-purple leggings as a space vixen on a cardboard-and-spare-parts set — sets the tone for the Groundswell Players’ send-up of vintage (and cheap) sci-fi. Jesse Bowie Paulsen (the crew’s requisite foreign species), Jack Meaney (the rock-jawed captain), and Scott Sheppard (the shorts-pantsed sidekick) all nail the archetypes, but unfortunately this frontier’s been explored so much that the jokes hardly seem alien. With such an able cast and the gifted Charlotte Ford at the helm, it’s disappointing that the show devolves into so much flailing about in zero G.
Through Sept. 10, $15, The Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St. MORE INFO HERE.
New Paradise Laboratories' Extremely Public Displays of Privacy brings to light the pornography of our daily lives via social networking and easy-access internet. The “story” features two women, one an eccentric, aging artist and the other a Fiona Apple-like young seductress. We, the viewers, are unsure what’s art here or what’s true relationship as we dig into their lives via Facebook, YouTube, and blog sites used to track everything from their names and interests to the exact shape and features of their genitals. Only the first part of the installment, Acts 2 and 3 may be even more surreal/real.
Runs through Oct. 1, free, MORE INFO HERE.
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