Oh, the Humanity (and other exclamations) Manbites Dog Theater Through Dec. 18 O come all ye lonely, baffled and despondent, o come ye, o come ye toManbites Dog Theater, where your questions will be asked, your fears and hopes revealed, and your dreary isolation breached by a touching production of Will Eno’s Oh, the Humanity […]
Kate Dobbs Ariail
Bio: Kate Dobbs Ariail writes about the arts.
Posted inCulture
Manbites Dog’s tonic, 5-star, alt-holiday Oh, the Humanity
Ed HuntDavid Berberian as a coach on a losing streak OH, THE HUMANITY AND OTHER EXCLAMATIONS5 starsManbites Dog TheaterThrough Dec. 18 Oh come all ye lonely, baffled and despondent, oh come ye, oh come ye to—Manbites Dog Theater, where your questions will be asked, your fears and hopes revealed, and your dreary isolation breached by […]
Posted inArt
Gregg show demonstrates modernism’s surprising Raleigh history
The well-thought-out modernist exhibition on display for two more weeks at N.C. State’s Gregg Museum of Art and Design will seem deeply familiar to viewers who were sentient during the 1950s and ’60s. While viewing Southern Roots of Mid-Century Modern, I felt an almost electric shock: Yes! This is how it was. Every home, no […]
Posted inArt
Billy Elliot soars
Billy Elliot The Musical At Durham Performing Arts Center Through Nov. 14 Most of us will never know the kind of community solidarity that features so movingly in Billy Elliot The Musical because most of us in “right-to-work” North Carolina have little experience with organized labor. But the real-life British coal miners’ strike of 1984–85 […]
Posted inCulture
Dancing toward solidarity: sensational Billy Elliot at DPAC
Photo by Michael BrosilowHe’s not that kind of contender: Billy (Giuseppe Bausilio) and George (Joel Blum) BILLY ELLIOT5 starsDurham Performing Arts CenterThrough Nov. 14 Most of us will never know the kind of community solidarity that features so movingly in Billy Elliot The Musical because most of us in “right-to-work” North Carolina have little experience […]
Posted inArt
Bare Theatre and The Delta Boys’ The Winter’s Tale
The Winter’s Tale Bare Theatre and The Delta Boys Closed at Common Ground Theatre Oct. 8–10 at Sertoma Amphitheatre The Winter’s Tale is not one of William Shakespeare’s tightest or most powerful plays. Its parts fit uncomfortably together, and it can be a challenge keeping up with who is doing what to whom in which […]
Posted inCulture
The weight of the world in five-star Happy Days
Andrea AkinJulie Fishell and Ray Dooley Happy Days5 starsPRC2 @ Elizabeth Price Kenan TheatreThrough Sept. 12; www.playmakersrep.org My newfound appreciation for the work of Samuel Beckett dates from 7:45 p.m., Sept. 8, after Julie Fishell’s character Winnie had been speaking for just a few minutes in PRC2’s new production of Beckett’s Happy Days in the […]
Posted inMusic
Brooklyn Rider, three times
Brooklyn Rider plays UNC’s Memorial Hall Friday, Sept. 10, 8 p.m. (tickets $10–$15); Duke’s Reynolds Industries Theater Saturday, Sept. 11, 8 p.m. (tickets $5–$30); and Raleigh’s Progress Energy Center Sunday, Sept. 12, 3 p.m. (tickets $10–$25). See Related Events below for details. The string quartet has been getting cool for some time nowTurtle Island, Kronos, […]
Posted inGuides
Nasher’s The Record is only the biggest of the fall’s numerous new art shows
Art is not, despite what some say, all about ideas. It may detour around, short-circuit or transcend ideas in favor of sensation or emotion. An art show is another matter, the group art show in particular. A well-curated exhibition involving the work of multiple artists must be idea-driven. And when the ideas have relevance beyond […]
Posted inArt
Voyaging in the Forest with Paperhand’s Islands Unknown
Islands Unknown See below for performance schedule The first thing you see when entering the University of North Carolina’s sweet little Forest Theater at the edge of Battle Park, after paying your inexpensive entry fee for Paperhand Puppet Intervention‘s 11th annual summer show, is a vintage poster (circa 1984) from Bread and Puppet Theater, promoting […]