Private Lives PlayMakers Repertory Company Through Feb. 9 In the hands of a master dramatist like Noël Coward, even the carryings-on and complaints of married couples become alluring enough to wring laughs even from those wounded by love. Although PlayMakers’ revival of Coward’s 1929 Private Lives includes an ensemble of actor/ singers to fill it […]
Kate Dobbs Ariail
Bio: Kate Dobbs Ariail writes about the arts.
Posted inCulture
Nagging suspicions: I Love My Hair… reviewed
I LOVE MY HAIR WHEN IT’S GOOD & THEN AGAIN WHEN IT LOOKS DEFIANT AND IMPRESSIVE (The Remix) ★★ 1/2 Forty/ AM at Manbites Dog Theater Through Feb. 1; ilovemyhairtheplay.com I was unable to see the original production of I Love My Hair When It’s Good & Then Again When It Looks Defiant and Impressive, […]
Posted inArt
Two adventurous couples in Seascape
Seascape South Stream Productions @ Common Ground Through Jan. 19 Edward Albee has written many plays of a scale suitable for production by small, even ephemeral, groups in modest black box spaces. Mostly Albee requires ruthless engagement with intimate human passions and a vast appreciation for foible and anomaly. Theater artists are not the only […]
Posted inArt
An overdue G.K. Chesterton revival with The Man Who Was Thursday
The Man Who Was Thursday Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern Through Dec. 21 G.K. Chesterton was an English writer much read by my parents’ and grandparents’ generations, and consequently by my younger self, but who has fallen into obscurity. However, playwright Neal Bell’s adaption of Chesterton’s send-up of the eternal battle between order and chaos […]
Posted inTheater
Common Wealth on the rise with Many Moons
Many Moons Common Wealth Endeavors at Common Ground Theatre Through Nov. 16 Not content to be one of the Triangle’s more formidable actors in addition to his IBM career job, Gregor McElvogue founded a theater cooperative. Common Wealth Endeavors grew from the idea that the true common wealth generated by the former British Empire can […]
Posted inTheater
A powerful post-Civil War encounter in ArtsCenter Stage’s The Whipping Man
The Whipping Man @ ArtsCenter Stage Carrboro ArtsCenter Through Oct. 27 Art necessarily takes on the issues of its own time, but it is in its processing of history that art often excels in feeding civilization. 2013 marks the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Carrboro ArtsCenter Stage has focused its season on […]
Posted inArt
It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play is an old favorite in a charming new guise
It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play PlayMakers Rep Through Dec. 16 The onslaught of holiday plays and concerts is upon us, and the roster includes many regular favorites (or yawners, depending), but this year PlayMakers Repertory Company offers an old favorite in a charming new guise. It’s a Wonderful Life, the 1947 Frank […]
Posted inCulture
The minimalist, highly personal multimedia pioneer Meredith Monk at Duke; final performance tonight
Photo by K. Scott Schafer MEREDITH MONKNov. 2-3Duke Performances, Reynolds Industries TheaterMultimedia mama Meredith Monk has been at Duke on a residency for two weeks, and last night presented a show in Reynolds Theater that brought her past into the present. The show repeats tonight—who knows when you might have another opportunity to see and […]
Posted inArt
Timeless human foibles in Deep Dish Theater’s She Stoops to Conquer
She Stoops to Conquer Deep Dish Theater Through Nov. 17 One of the many great things about the Triangle theater scene’s width and depth is the range of plays it is now possible to see without going very far. We can contemplate new plays with the e-ink still wet, those only recently set loose on […]
Posted inArt
The Brothers Size, an amazing script by Tarell Alvin McCraney
The Brothers Size Manbites Dog Theater Through Sept. 29 Leaving the theater on opening night of The Brothers Size, I had the oddest sensation of entering an imaginary world as I stepped into the cozy bright lobby. Inside the dark theater, we’d been immersed in a rough reality, overwashed with waves of a mystic reality. […]