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Reality TV’s True Inspiration Like all the best (or perhaps worst) episodes of Jerry Springer, Euripides’ Ion has it all: a mother forced to abandon her child, questionable paternity, attempted murder, and funny glasses. The ancient Greeks truly did form the foundation of Western society. Boxcar Theatre’s production of Ion pares down the original story for the sake of an outdoor production, but maintains the utterly dysfunctional family dynamic loved by audiences everywhere. |
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Shocking Shenanigans Hot. Cold. Hot. Cold. Hot. Cold. Like the waters of the ancient Roman baths, Thrillpeddlers’"Audacious Artefacts" douses its audience in alternating splashes of horror and sex, shocking the system. From 1897 until 1962, the Theatre du Grand Guignol in Paris confronted its audiences with horror plays designed to terrify interspersed with sex farces that provided comic relief from said terror. Thrillpeddlers brings to stage four short plays of the Parisian Grand Guignol that probe the depths of human depravity and sexuality, culminating in a downright dirty (yet hysterical) sex romp. |
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A Brave Attempt, But Not Quite There Honor. Glory. Bloodshed. These are the words that come to mind at the mention of Homer’s Iliad, the famous epic poem about the wrath of Achilles during the last year of the Trojan War. While the poem itself is rather long and tedious in places, the tensions between the characters as well as Homer’s descriptions of the battles would seem rich fodder for a theatrical production. Yet, American Conservatory Theatre’s production of "War Music", a stage adaption of Christopher Logue’s book by the same name, provides none of the spectacle, excitement, and tension one might expect from a modern remake of Homer’s classic tale of war. |
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Dostoevsky Distilled Three actors, two chairs, a table, and a bed: this is what Berkeley Rep’s production of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment has reduced the story to, yet the ultimate power of the novel remains, concentrated into these carefully chosen fragments. To take on the challenge of adapting Dostoevsky’s enormously complex and voluminous novel into a stage play takes incredible will, and not only do playwrights Marilyn Campbell and Curt Columbus turn the story into a captivating psychological journey but they also successfully distill the main themes of Dostoevsky’s work into a 90-minute production. |
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