Heroes 2nd Avenue South Players At Burning Coal Theatre at the Murphey School Through May 23 676-6170 www.shalomraleigh.org Toward the end of their careers, Senators Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond would occasionally boastin only mild exaggerationthat they’d amassed “over 200 years of legislative experience” between them. John Murphy, David Ring and Jordan Smith may not […]
Byron Woods
Bio: Byron Woods is the INDY's theater and dance critic.Email: [email protected]: http://twitter.com/byronwoods
Posted inArt
A five-star comedy-drama of feminist manners at Deep Dish
Body Awareness Deep Dish Theater Through May 22 The tea lights gleamed like molten butter as our host stooped to ignite the Cherries Junior Johnson. The moonshine-saturated sponge cake flash-broiled the lake of fruit and syrup as my companion leaned forward. “You’ve had such success with your writing,” she said as I looked, demurely I […]
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Conflicting takes on what the body means: 5 stars for Body Awareness at Deep Dish Theater
BODY AWARENESS5 STARS (highest recommendation) Deep Dish TheaterThrough May 22 [email protected] | Twitter: @byronwoods | Facebook: arts.byron.woods The tea lights gleamed like molten butter—the only source of light in the entire restaurant—as our host stooped to ignite the Cherries Junior Johnson. The sponge cake, soaked in moonshine, had just begun to flash-broil its little lake […]
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The Dark side of the Internet, revisited: Dark Play at REP
photo courtesy REPChris Milner, Ryan Brock, and Hazel Edmond in REP’s Dark Play DARK PLAY, or STORIES FOR BOYS4 StarsRaleigh Ensemble PlayersThrough May 2 [email protected]: @byronwoods Facebook: arts.byron.woods Once it was believed that the Internet would connect us together, individually as well as a culture, in ways unimagined before—and in some ways, it has. But […]
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Wicked is a play for our fearful times
Wicked Durham Performing Arts Center Through May 16 I hate those terminally oversensitized commentators who drag political controversy into every public conversation. A discussion board on the TV show Lost this week is an easy case in point: “There is no way on earth John Locke who was about to be operated on would not […]
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Raleigh Ensemble Players’ Dark Play
Dark Play, or Stories for Boys Raleigh Ensemble Players Through May 8 Once it was believed that the Internet would connect us, individually and as a culture, in unimagined ways and to some degree it has. But it has also repeatedly proven a hunting ground where the unwary have found their identities, emotions and bodies […]
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A Wickedly entertaining modern-day political allegory: Wicked at DPAC
photo by Joan MarcusDon Amendolia as the Wizard of Oz in Wicked Wicked 4.5 starsDPACThrough May 16 By now, they’re the kind of marketing metaphors we’ve all probably become numb to: Arnold Schwarzenegger is the Terminator. Christian Bale is Batman. Reese Witherspoon is Legally Blonde. But having seen the professional touring version of the Broadway […]
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Manbites Dog’s Oldest Living Confederate Widow: Her Confession
Oldest Living Confederate Widow: Her Confession Manbites Dog Theater Through May 1 I’m happyand a bit relievedto report that the third stage incarnation of Allan Gurganus’ novel Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All is the most successful. I caught the first version, an implausibly modernized take starring Ellen Burstyn, during its previews on Broadway in […]
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Angus MacLachlan’s Southeastern Center for Contemporary Arts
Southeastern Center for Contemporary Arts (SECCA) Burning Coal Theatre Through May 1 Did you come to make friends, or did you come to make art? Choose one. Because frequently, when you try to do both, you ultimately accomplish neither goal. That’s part of the very pointed advice playwright Angus MacLachlan has for his audience in […]
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A Master Class in Artistic Survival: SECCA at Burning Coal
Aaron Mills & PJ Maske in SECCA Southeastern Center for Contemporary Arts (SECCA)4 StarsBurning Coal TheatreThrough May 1 It had been a long day of rehearsals. Thankfully the show had reached its continental divide several days before: that meridian every production crosses—every fortunate one, at least—where the thought of roomfuls of strangers seeing what you’ve […]
