Theater

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Page 237
Phillips: Down and out in modern Tokyo.

"Microworld(s)' and "Digital Effects' at Fringe Festival.

Solo acts: Micro to magic

In Microworld(s), the last resident of a Tokyo apartment tower provides a metaphor for the ways our humanity survives within modernity's inhuman structures. In Digital Effects Steve Cuiffo takes the magician's art into the post-modern realm. Microworld(s), Part 1. Written and performed by Thaddeus Phillips. Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental production for Philadelphia Fringe Festival. September 4-19, 2009 at Painted Bride, 230 Vine St. (215) 413.9006 or www.pafringe.com/details.cfm?id=9067.
Jonathan M. Stein

Jonathan M. Stein

Articles 2 minute read
What better companions for the end of the world?

"Annihilation Point' at Fringe Festival

The future is very funny

In The Annihilation Point, the lunatic crew from Time Mender productions offers a hectic array of fast-paced and unpredictable scenes of the future that generate almost continuous laughter.
Jonathan M. Stein

Jonathan M. Stein

Articles 2 minute read
Daisey: A Bush beneficiary.

Daisey's 'Last Cargo Cult' at Live Arts Festival

Preaching to the choir

Mike Daisey's humorous monologues offer therapeutic relief to the lefty mainstream. But as a performance artist, he lacks the stagecraft or imaginative language of Spalding Gray.

Articles 3 minute read
Laherty, Pictot: Sidewalk therapy.

"small metal objects' at Live Arts Festival

Grasping at intimacy on a city street

small metal objects ingeniously invites us to eavesdrop on an intimate personal conversation in the context of a crowded urban street.
Jonathan M. Stein

Jonathan M. Stein

Articles 2 minute read
Embarrassing himself for decades.

Albee's "Zoo Story' at Villanova

The trouble with Edward Albee (and his characters, too)

Edward Albee's The Zoo Story may be historically important as the moment when American theater began to come out of the closet, but the play itself is dated, and difficult to perform convincingly unless played against the grain. In Joanna Rotté's spacious direction, it reveals some forgotten strengths, but also exposes inherent weaknesses.
Robert Zaller

Robert Zaller

Articles 8 minute read
Moriah Cebollero as Courtney Lee Wilson: A virtual life.

Whit MacLaughlin's "Fatebook' at Live Arts Festival (2nd review)

Theater of the future

I approached Fatebook's pre-production preparation with a degree of curmudgeonly skepticism. But I must admit: This show's fashioning of original art out of the newest social media modes of communication is a groundbreaking step into a theater of the future.
Jonathan M. Stein

Jonathan M. Stein

Articles 4 minute read

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Anything to shock the commissars. (Photo: Lukasz Gawronski.)

Gombrowicz's "Operetta' at Live Arts Festival (2nd review)

1960s Polish bombast

This relic of the Soviet bloc seeks to detonate all ideologies, with uneven results for a contemporary audience that rarely sees such anarchic bombast on stage.
Jonathan M. Stein

Jonathan M. Stein

Articles 1 minute read
Strathairn, Thompson: Like a Dickens novel. (Photo: Mark Garvin.)

"Nathan the Wise' at People's Light (1st review)

A distant mirror in the Middle East

A modern translation of Gotthold Lessing's Nathan the Wise, an 18th-Century German fable about religious tolerance, receives a charming production at People's Light, with the noted stage and screen actor David Strathairn in the title role.

Bill Murphy

Articles 2 minute read
Dibble: His most physical role. (Photo: Mark Garvin.)

“Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” at the Walnut (2nd review)

Those misunderstood scoundrels

Dan Rottenberg's complaints notwithstanding, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is above all a rejection of serious theater and a spoof of old Broadway musicals. On that admittedly lightweight level, it succeeds amply.
Steve Cohen

Steve Cohen

Articles 2 minute read
Lakis, Pacek: A throwback to the Cold War.

"Little Shop of Horrors' in Norristown

Something new in a cult classic

The hero of Little Shop of Horrors always thought of his man-eating plant as female. So why has it taken 49 years for a theater company to cast a woman as the plant?
Steve Cohen

Steve Cohen

Articles 2 minute read