THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD Through May 22 Kennedy Theatre, Raleigh www.theatreraleigh.com John Jasper is an old-school villain, right down to his handlebar moustache. He leers with a cocked eyebrow, his hand crooked like a raptor’s claw above his head. Horrified, his prey, Rosa Bud, turns her face away, a dainty knuckle clenched between her […]
Byron Woods
Bio: Byron Woods is the INDY's theater and dance critic.Email: [email protected]: http://twitter.com/byronwoods
Posted inCulture
Reviewing Local Independent Presenters’ 2015-16 Season on Stage
Manbites Dog TheaterManbites Dog looked to the future in a season focused on technology and humanity, but strengths that have long been a part of the company’s history were evident in its twenty-ninth year. In Durham’s haven for visionary guest directors, curated independent artists, and controversial, thought-provoking scripts, director Joseph Megel took a sobering look […]
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NC Theatre Somehow Wrests a Strong Show From Casting Calamity in Wit
WIT Fletcher Opera Theater, Raleigh Through May 8, $24–$75 NC Theatre had two reasons to be apprehensive last Thursday. Lead actor Judy McLane quit its production of Wit the day before opening (“personal reasons,” according to a press release; “vocal problems” was the word on stage Saturday night), and she had no understudy. Making matters […]
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The Audience Must Act in Beertown, a Theatrical Experiment in Civil Society
BEERTOWN Raleigh Little Theatre, Raleigh May 6–22 8 p.m. Thurs.–Sat./3 p.m. Sun. $13–$22 At first glance, the thirteen items on the table in Gaddy-Goodwin Teaching Theatre suggest a yard sale in its final hour. A rusted license plate, an ancient film projector, a gray pie tin, and two cloudy old jars look like the picked-through […]
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Robert Weiss Dares to Embellish the Bard in Carolina Ballet’s Macbeth
MACBETH Durham Performing Arts Center, Durham Saturday, April 30 & Sunday, May 1 It’s been quite a month for Shakespeare in the Triangle, during the four-hundredth anniversary of his death. A marathon reading of his First Folio at the N.C. Museum of History (April 23–28) strips his thirty-eight plays down to their words. And Carolina […]
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Theater Review: Little Green Pig Meets Tom Waits in a Night of Boisterous, Boozy Cabaret
The Piano Has Been Drinking: A Tom Waits Cabaret ★★★½ Friday, April 22, 8 p.m. Arcana Bar & Lounge, Durham If you’re putting on a Tom Waits cabaret—as Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern did at Mystery Brewing Company last Saturday, and will do again at Arcana in Durham on Friday—you’re going to need more than […]
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Astonishing Performances Power a Tale of Apartheid-Era South Africa in “Master Harold” … and the Boys.
“MASTER HAROLD” … AND THE BOYS Sonorous Road Productions, Raleigh Through April 24 It’s a rainy afternoon in 1950 in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, at the start of Athol Fugard’s “Master Harold”… and the boys, which is currently in production by Mortall Coile Theatre Company at Sonorous Road. But a storm is also brewing inside […]
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Theater Review: The Elephant Man Is a Theatrical Autopsy of Victorian England’s Selective Morals
The Elephant Man★★★ Theatre in the Park, Raleigh Through April 24 Perhaps the subject’s medical nature had something to do with it, but by the end of the first act of The Elephant Man at Theatre in the Park, I’d concluded it was a theatrical autopsy that stripped the title character’s tale to its bones, […]
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Theater Review: The Consequences of Virtual Play Laid Bare at Manbites in The Nether
The Nether ★★★★ Manbites Dog Theater, Durham Through April 23 In The Body in Pain, Elaine Scarry writes about how technology has extended our physical abilities and senses. The hammer and handgun concentrate applied force; the telescope lengthens eyesight; microphones and loudspeakers amplify voices; bicycles and cars expand mobility. But as networked computers exponentially increase […]
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Theater Review: Trapped Somewhere Between Ape and Man in Kafka’s Monkey
KAFKA’S MONKEY★★★★ Common Ground Theatre, Durham Through April 9, $10–$15 History has shown that when captives address their captors, the experience can transform each party. It can even transform the cultures and times in which they live, as in the cases of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and Albert Camus’s clandestine “Letters […]