The Turn of the Screw Hot Summer Nights at the Kennedy @ Progress Energy Center Through Aug. 9 The question “Have I seduced you?” seems almost a non sequitur when David McClutchey’s chilly, and certainly Victorian, Master poses it to Dana Marks’ circumspect Governess at the opening of The Turn of the Screw. In that […]
Byron Woods
Bio: Byron Woods is the INDY's theater and dance critic.Email: [email protected]: http://twitter.com/byronwoods
Posted inArt
ADF closes with an intriguing program of student work
ADF/ Hollins University MFA Student Concert Reynolds Theater, Duke University July 25 If transitions are an inevitable part of the dance world, some of them are far more welcome than others. This past weekend, one day after the 2009 American Dance Festival closed, Merce Cunningham died in Manhattan at the age of 90, three months […]
Posted inGuides
Common Ground Theatre
It’s not the region’s largest room devoted to the performing arts, and certainly not its most lavish. For starters, all of the interior spaces of the two-story building on Brenrose Circle, just off Hillsborough Road in Durham, could fit quite comfortably inside Paul Green Theater on the UNC Campus. A small subdivision of buildings like […]
Posted inArt
Pilobolus’ 2B
2B Pilobolus, with Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollack American Dance Festival Closed July 11 Ever have one of those dreams that seemed so vivid and just made so much sense while you were in itbut when you woke up it was gibberish? Not to worry, you’re not alone. Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollack have had […]
Posted inArt
The absurdist dark comedy of Goodnight Everything imagines the madmen in our midst
Goodnight Everything Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern @ Golden Belt Through July 18 Despite its gritty, grinning nihilism, playwright John Justice’s intriguing new comedy, Goodnight Everything, seems strikingly in sympathy with an observation of St. Teresathat more tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones. After all, Justice’s hour-long, one-act play, itself something of […]
Posted inArt
Emanuel Gat’s Winter Variations at ADF
Winter Variations Emanuel Gat Dance Reynolds Industries Theater American Dance Festival June 22-24 If a dance maker has no idea what his work is about, his audience is likely to experience similar difficulties. This is but one of the cautionary lessons from Winter Variations, choreographer Emanuel Gat’s duet for himself and dancer Roy Assaf, in […]
Posted inArt
Boys don’t cry … they sing and dance in Jersey Boys
Jersey Boys Broadway Series South Progress Energy Center Through July 18 What makes jukebox musicals soooo temptingand yet so rarely worth it? If their creators haven’t padded on the extra verses and reprises while skimping on the narrative thread (think Smokey Joe’s Cafe), their apotheosis of a particular singer, band or songwriter summons all of […]
Posted inCulture
You be the judge! Cedar Lake’s “Decadance” vs. Batsheva…
‘But…it looks really different when it’s placed on ballet dancers!” That’s what ADF sources told us when we asked about the differences between the version of Decadance that festival goers saw here in 2004 and the version Cedar Lake Contemporary Dance performs this week at DPAC. Though the company provided us with the 30-second clip […]
Posted inArt
A somber Washing Machine in Durham
Washing Machine Fist in Pocket Theater @ Manbites Dog Theater Through June 28 The structure of Washing Machine, Jason Stuart’s eerie little multispeed jigsaw of a play about the accidental death of a 5-year-old girl in a laundromat actually parallels what her would-be rescuers tried to do to save her life: It shatters the event […]
Posted inArt
Shen Wei Dance Arts
RE- (I / II/ III) Shen Wei Dance Arts American Dance Festival June 18-20 Durham Performing Arts Center By spring of this year, critics watching the career of Shen Wei had reason enough to be concerned. The diffident choreographer, whose meteoric career path since the turn of the century had largely been launched from Duke’s […]
