Lungs★★★★ 1/2 Through Sept. 25 Sonorous Road Theatre, Raleigh You scarcely need a critic to note the conspicuous strengths of Sonorous Road Theatre’s rewarding production of Lungs. Two eyes, two ears, and a waking mind should do the trick. Artistic director Michelle Murray Wells and a previously underutilized Jonathan King are clearly among the strongest […]
Byron Woods
Bio: Byron Woods is the INDY's theater and dance critic.Email: [email protected]: http://twitter.com/byronwoods
Posted inGuides
At Duke Performances, the Civilians Face Death with Crime-Scene Cleaners, E.R. Nurses, and Vampires
THE CIVILIANS: THE UNDERTAKING Thursday, Sept. 29–Saturday, Oct. 1, $10–$28 Sheafer Lab Theater, Durham www.dukeperformances.duke.edu It’s a good thing director Steve Cosson isn’t easily dissuaded. “It was the hardest show to sell,” he says of a 2013 workshop production of Be the Death of Me, a precursor to The Civilians’ new production, The Undertaking. To […]
Posted inCulture
Assessing the First Outing—and the Future—of the Women’s Theatre Festival
Our region had never before seen anything like the Women’s Theatre Festival. In an organized grassroots revolt against long-term local and national gender inequity in playwriting, directing, casting, and technical design, the fully crowd-sourced endeavor produced seventy-three events in four cities over five weeks. It mounted eight mainstage productions—and eight hands-on workshops where dozens of […]
Posted inCulture
Theater Review: Something Rotten in the State of Kansas Delights in Maccountant
Maccountant ★★★★Through Sept. 17Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern @ Common Ground Theatre One’s first instinct is to simply laugh Maccountant off. Indeed, the gag-filled season opener for Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern provides ample reason for laughter as artistic director Jaybird O’Berski transplants his freewheeling adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth from eleventh-century Scotland to downtown Wichita […]
Posted inCulture
Theater Review: Creature Emerges Not Quite Fully Formed
Creature ★★ Through Sept. 11 Tiny Engine Theatre Company @ North Raleigh Arts & Creative Theatre Those who study acting and directing build upon their skills. Once they learn how to stage a monologue, they move on to scene work, and then full-length plays. Unfortunately, this Raleigh production of Creature is clearly stuck somewhere between […]
Posted inArt
Puppets Protest Climate Change in Paperhand’s Courageous The Beautiful Beast
THE BEAUTIFUL BEAST Through Sept. 5 (Forest Theatre, Chapel Hill) Sept. 9–11 (North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh) www.paperhand.org The unvarnished, unaccompanied vocals in The Beautiful Beast‘s mid-show chorus seem lifted from the Sacred Harp spiritual tradition of the nineteenth century, but the haunting lyrics admonish us about modern-day maladies such as climate change and […]
Posted inCulture
Theater Review: Varied Visions of a Musical Mecca Grace Raleigh Stages
MEMPHIS ★★★★ Raleigh Little Theatre Through Sept. 11 MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET ★★★ ½ Theatre Raleigh Through Aug. 28 One single mile separates two poles of 1950s musical history in Memphis, Tennessee: Sun Studio, where legendary producer Sam Phillips recorded country, blues, and rhythm and blues, along with a new thing called rock ’n’ roll; and […]
Posted inArt
Superheroines Historical and Fantastical Power Two Memorable Women’s Theatre Festival Shows
DECISION HEIGHT Through Aug. 21 The ArtsCenter, CarrboroTHE AMAZING CUNT & LIL’ BITCH TAKE RALEIGH Through Aug. 20 The Green Monkey, Raleigh There’s no shortage of popular entertainment about military basic trainingat least for men. Plays on the topic include Neil Simon’s Biloxi Blues and Black Angels Over Tuskeegee; an even broader range of films […]
Posted inCulture
Theater Review: The Roaring Girl Is a Kinetic, Gender-Fluid Revisionist History of Seventeenth-Century Norms
The Roaring Girl ★★★ Through Aug. 20 Little Independent Theatre @ Murphey School Auditorium, Raleigh As they say, you gotta have a gimmick. Mary Frith was a London thief and pickpocket; her nickname, Moll Cutpurse, referred to her first primary source of income. She also dressed as a man in public, cursed like a sailor, […]
Posted inCulture
Theater Review: Domestic-Violence Drama The Traditionalists Leaves Us Wanting More—But Not in a Good Way
The Traditionalists★★ Through Aug. 14 Women’s Theatre Festival @ Umstead Park United Church of Christ I am an adult survivor of domestic violence. I still have the pistol my father used one night to threaten my mother’s life and my own. I keep that firearm, which is now unable to menace or injure anyone else, […]