Theater/Film Reviews
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Doctor Faustus, or the Modern Promethius
This autumn has been a fertile harvest season for those who seek more than the Same Old. SATE Ensemble Theatre’s contribution to Faustival is Doctor Faustus, or the Modern Promethius, John Wolber’s work playing on the kit Marlowe classic. Wolbers interlaces the centuries-old tale with today. Despite the seeming incongruities, it mostly works. Hearing the
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Admissions
Admissions. The word has two accepted definitions. One is “a statement acknowledging the truth of something”. The second is “the process or fact of entering or being allowed to enter a place, organization, or institution”. The Joshua Harmon play by that name, at the Rep Studio, uses both senses of the word, although it’s quickly
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Macbeth: Come Like Shadows
It’s not Shakespeare for Dummies. Rebel and Misfits Productions’ offering of Macbeth: Come Like Shadows would not be a good choice for those unfamiliar with the Bard. Nevertheless, in many ways this is an exciting production. It’s innovative, taking the audience from a meeting spot near Soulard Market, via bus, to the site of the
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Into the Breeches!
A good time is clearly being had by all. Or at least the company of Into the Breeches! surely makes it seem that way. A project of Shakespeare Festival St. Louis, the first of three pieces offered by their IN THE WORKS festival at the Grandel Theater, it certainly deserves to be described as rollicking. George
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A Doll’s House, Part 2
When last we saw Nora Helmering, she was walking out the door, leaving behind her husband Torvald and their three children. She had come to believe her whole life was, if not a lie, than an untruth. That was the close of A Doll’s House, Ibsen’s then(1879)-shocking play. There are certain children who, after hearing
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Evil Dead the Musical
Evil Dead the Musical: You either get it or you don’t. There are some fairly rabid fans of this, not unlike The Rocky Horror Show followers, although it hasn’t gotten to the point of shouting the lines along with the actors, at least on opening night at Stray Dog’s third production of this show. There’s
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The Last Days of Judas Iscariot
Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy night. [Credit not to Bette Davis in All About Eve but to Joseph Manckiewicz; we don’t give Olivier credit for “Alas, poor Yorick,” do we?] But it is going to be a bumpy night at Mustard Seed Theatre for those who go see The Last Days
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Raging Skillet
Raging Skillet is the sort of show that transports one to a very small theater in, say Greenwich Village. It’s not mainstream theatre, nor does it want to be. But it is very, very funny. Rossi – a one-word name – is a chef who clawed her way up through the catering world to make
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Chef
I came across the first few pages of the script for Chef online. Upstream Theatre is giving us the American premiere of this play from the British-Egyptian playwright Sabrina Mahfouz, and directed by Marianne de Pury. Chef, the only identification given to the character, arrives onstage carrying a peach. The script is written as a
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The Little Foxes
The theme for St. Louis Actors’ Studio’s 12th season is “Blood Is Thicker than Water.” Blood is an interesting metaphor for family. Compared to water, not only is it thicker, it’s stickier. It can leave permanent stains. It clots. It carries nourishment but it also provides a pathway for various illnesses. Yeah, it’s a dandy metaphor.