RANT’S TOMB

It’s moan and groan time at the Herberger again. We’ve got yet another message/relationship play, this time called Sight Unseen. Written by Donald Margulies and staged by the Arizona Jewish Theatre Company, it treats us to two hours of four dysfunctional characters explaining how they feel about each other. It’s…

FRAYED KNOT

Rope, presented by Banzai Entertainment at Planet Earth Multi-Cultural Theatre, is a murder mystery but not a whodunit–the play begins with the two murderers strangling their victim, hiding his body, then serving their guests a buffet from the trunk into which the corpse has been stuffed. The story examines why…

GREAT SOCIETY’S CHILD

The Good Times Are Killing Me was a surprise off-Broadway hit a few years back, and the autobiographical play by syndicated cartoonist Lynda Barry–first a novel–tries to capture the mid-1960s Great Society frame of mind, when blacks were moving into aging, middle-class, white neighborhoods. Barry’s voice is that of Edna,…

GREAT SOCIETY’S CHILD

The Good Times Are Killing Me was a surprise off-Broadway hit a few years back, and the autobiographical play by syndicated cartoonist Lynda Barry–first a novel–tries to capture the mid-1960s Great Society frame of mind, when blacks were moving into aging, middle-class, white neighborhoods. Barry’s voice is that of Edna,…

THE BEATEN PATH

Lieutenant Commander Orlando is the kind of guy who deserves to be shot in the back. He tortures political prisoners by day, and just when his wife decides to take a trip, he inconveniences her by borrowing the strap from her suitcase to tie up his sex slave. Maria Irene…

THE BEATEN PATH

Lieutenant Commander Orlando is the kind of guy who deserves to be shot in the back. He tortures political prisoners by day, and just when his wife decides to take a trip, he inconveniences her by borrowing the strap from her suitcase to tie up his sex slave. Maria Irene…

GREAT SOCIETY’S CHILD

The Good Times Are Killing Me was a surprise off-Broadway hit a few years back, and the autobiographical play by syndicated cartoonist Lynda Barry–first a novel–tries to capture the mid-1960s Great Society frame of mind, when blacks were moving into aging, middle-class, white neighborhoods. Barry’s voice is that of Edna,…

THE BEATEN PATH

Lieutenant Commander Orlando is the kind of guy who deserves to be shot in the back. He tortures political prisoners by day, and just when his wife decides to take a trip, he inconveniences her by borrowing the strap from her suitcase to tie up his sex slave. Maria Irene…

THE BEATEN PATH

Lieutenant Commander Orlando is the kind of guy who deserves to be shot in the back. He tortures political prisoners by day, and just when his wife decides to take a trip, he inconveniences her by borrowing the strap from her suitcase to tie up his sex slave. Maria Irene…

GREAT SOCIETY’S CHILD

The Good Times Are Killing Me was a surprise off-Broadway hit a few years back, and the autobiographical play by syndicated cartoonist Lynda Barry–first a novel–tries to capture the mid-1960s Great Society frame of mind, when blacks were moving into aging, middle-class, white neighborhoods. Barry’s voice is that of Edna,…

FLEECE CIRCUS

Lampooning the shysters of evangelism has kept satirists busy ever since the faithful realized that the price of salvation was an empty pocket. What’s even more hilarious, the faithful never quite seem to grasp what’s going on. So I expected Lloyd’s Prayer to be funnier than it was. But playwright…

FLEECE CIRCUS

Lampooning the shysters of evangelism has kept satirists busy ever since the faithful realized that the price of salvation was an empty pocket. What’s even more hilarious, the faithful never quite seem to grasp what’s going on. So I expected Lloyd’s Prayer to be funnier than it was. But playwright…

ROMEO VOID

According to the Arizona Shakespeare Festival’s production of Romeo and Juliet, Verona was full of crazy people who screamed a lot, mugged outrageously, told jokes and fell on the ground. Of course the title couple lived there as well, and they tried to go about their forbidden love affair, in…

VICTIM’S RITES

Death and the Maiden turns out to be a lot like a political candidate: lots of promises, and always the hope of answers to it all. But South American playwright Ariel Dorfman sidetracks us with credibility problems–always a bad sign when it comes to politics–and ends up so muddling what…

VICTIM’S RITES

Death and the Maiden turns out to be a lot like a political candidate: lots of promises, and always the hope of answers to it all. But South American playwright Ariel Dorfman sidetracks us with credibility problems–always a bad sign when it comes to politics–and ends up so muddling what…

ROMEO VOID

According to the Arizona Shakespeare Festival’s production of Romeo and Juliet, Verona was full of crazy people who screamed a lot, mugged outrageously, told jokes and fell on the ground. Of course the title couple lived there as well, and they tried to go about their forbidden love affair, in…

CAUSE AND DEFECT

The difficulty in reviewing Scott McPherson’s Marvin’s Room is knowing how much consideration to give to the playwright’s personal life. The cast of the production at Phoenix Little Theatre wore red ribbons at the curtain call, pointing out to audience members–if they hadn’t already read it in the program–that Marvin’s…

CAUSE AND DEFECT

The difficulty in reviewing Scott McPherson’s Marvin’s Room is knowing how much consideration to give to the playwright’s personal life. The cast of the production at Phoenix Little Theatre wore red ribbons at the curtain call, pointing out to audience members–if they hadn’t already read it in the program–that Marvin’s…

COMEDY OF ERAS

Legend has it that movie mogul Louis B. Mayer once stated: “If you’ve got a message, send a telegram.” With Past History, a new play written by Arizona State University’s Michael Grady and presented at the school’s Galvin Playhouse, Western Union would be snowed under. Past History attempts to draw…

OH, SHAW

No one served George Bernard Shaw’s satirical purposes better than the religious hypocrite. In The Devil’s Disciple, you can almost hear Shaw smacking his lips in anticipation as he sets forth his plot of the rogue and his pious family. The rogue, of course, ends up with the family fortune,…

Stages

Somebody thought it was a good idea for a play. Four guys sit around and say what’s on their minds, sexual betrayal is discovered, somebody ends up getting shot. I don’t know. Maybe there’s an idea in there somewhere. But these are about the most boring four men to be…

THEY SWOOP TO CONQUER

:The Seagull, as staged by Arizona Theatre Company, treats Anton Chekhov’s play about love, art and lost youth with the utmost respect. But not with passion, or tenderness, or intelligence, or even the tongue-in-cheek humor that would have breathed some life into the classic. The play doesn’t quite make it…