SEMINAR PlayMakers Repertory Company 150 Country Club Road, Chapel Hill 919-962-7529 www.playmakersrep.org Through Nov. 1 The season of theatrical tough love continues. After seeing SEMINAR at PlayMakers Repertory Company, I’m tempted to either redouble my efforts as a critic or give them up entirely. Playwright Theresa Rebeck’s knowing drama from 2011 reveals a series of […]
Byron Woods
Bio: Byron Woods is the INDY's theater and dance critic.Email: [email protected]: http://twitter.com/byronwoods
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Bad romance in The Rivals at Raleigh Little Theatre, Outside Mullingar at Deep Dish and Belleville at Sonorous Road Productions
THE RIVALS Actors Comedy Lab and Raleigh Little Theatre 301 Pogue St., Raleigh 919-821-4579www.raleighlittletheatre.org Through Oct. 18 BELLEVILLE Sonorous Road Productions 209 Oberlin Road, Raleigh 919-379-5776www.sonorousroad.com Through Oct. 18 OUTSIDE MULLINGAR Deep Dish Theater Company 201 S. Estes Drive, Chapel Hill 919-968-1515www.deepdishtheater.org Through Nov. 14 My friend had just proposed that we get married. Then […]
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Theater review: Evan Mitchell’s Masked brings commedia dell’arte to the Carrack
MASKED: A ONE-MAN CONTEMPORARY COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE OBSESSION★★★ Saturday, Oct. 3 and 10, 8 p.m. $5 suggested donation The Carrack Modern Art 111 W. Parrish St., Durham 704-213-6666 When Evan Mitchell steps out from behind a shoji screen at one end of the Carrack, he reminds us how rarely we see fully embodied characters in this […]
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Juliette Binoche stars in a radical new Antigone at Carolina Performing Arts
ANTIGONE Feat. Juliette Binoche Friday, Oct. 9–Saturday, Oct. 10 8 p.m. $44–$94 Memorial Hall 114 E. Cameron Ave., Chapel Hill 919-843-3333 www.carolinaperformingarts.org Juliette Binoche is trying to convince me that the real focus of Antigone is not the title role she plays in a new touring production. Helmed by avant-garde director Ivo van Hove, it […]
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A racially charged play in Durham prompts a walkout and a pan from a local critic. What went wrong?
OPERATION: BABBLE ON Friday, Sept. 25, 8 p.m., free Black Ops Theatre Company @ Mule (The Regulator Bookshop) 720 Ninth St., Durham 919-286-2700 www.blackopstheatre.com Scathing reviews are a rarity in regional theater criticism because they are rarely needed. At the least, most of the area’s companies are competent. At best, their work rises to the […]
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Ayad Akhtar’s Pulitzer-winning play, Disgraced, explores anxieties about Arab heritage in American society
DISGRACED PlayMakers Repertory Company 150 Country Club Road, Chapel Hill 919-962-7529 www.playmakersrep.org Through Oct. 4 There are several moments in PlayMakers Repertory Company’s suspenseful production of Disgraced where we have no idea what’s going to happen next. The last one takes place in the final minute of the show. In his Upper West Side apartment, […]
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A good production of a bad classic musical, My Fair Lady, at Temple Theatre
MY FAIR LADY Temple Theatre 120 Carthage St., Sanford 919-774-4512 www.templeshows.com Through Sept. 27 I don’t often agree with Plato, who would have banned dramatists from his perfect city, the Republic. But I’m prepared to make an exception in the case of My Fair Lady. This is decidedly a minority opinion on a work once […]
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Theater review: Five playwrights walk into a bar
Cary Playwrights’ Forum: Bar Plays ★★★ Mac’s Tavern, Cary Thursday, Sept. 10 Five playwrights walk into a bar. By the time the waitress gets to their table, they’re seated and everything’s set up: five manuscripts, an assortment of pens and pencils and a deck of playing cards in the middle. When the waitress asks what […]
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Black Ops tears down media stereotypes about race—and confronts its audience—in The Shipment
THE SHIPMENT Black Ops Theatre Company and Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern @ Common Ground Theatre 4815B Hillsborough Road, Durham 919-384-7817 www.cgtheatre.com Through Sept. 19 Though I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise at the start of The Shipment, the debut production from Durham’s Black Ops, it wasn’t a case of […]
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Exploring the dangers of literary marriages in Honest Pint Theatre’s Annapurna
ANNAPURNA Honest Pint Theatre @ North Raleigh Arts & Creative Theatre 7713-51 Lead Mine Road, Raleigh 919-866-0228 www.nract.org Through Sept. 6 Before contemplating a wedding, young couples should consider a sensible warm-up: say, hiking the Appalachian Trail. Marriage is a very long walkthat is, when it’s done correctly. A few weeks in many weathers on […]