Review of The Artistic Home's Macbeth

Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called Macbeth. It was by William Shakespeare and it was directed by Scott Westerman. It was set 25 years after The Great Water Riots of 2089. I have never seen Macbeth in the future before, and I love it. It was a very different way of experiencing it because you think it will all happen in the future and there will be a new Macbeth. It still has the same plotline, characters, and language. I think this was a great show because it was different from a normal Macbeth but then it still kept the great aspects of the original story.

The weird sisters (Brookelyn Hébert, Jill Oliver, Skye Shrum) were very creepy because they were very threatening and they seemed insane because they would just break into screaming and pounding against whatever was by them (sound design by John Corkill and Alex Monroe). Their costumes (by Misti Bradford) seemed like war garments because they had these camouflage headdresses that they would wear and would make them disappear, but then the actors pretended they couldn't see them but the audience could so you felt like you were in the witches' world. There were all these human-sized holes in the stage (scenic and lighting design by Jake Bray) that had toxic water in them and the witches crawled out of them. When anyone died they fell into the holes and they might have become witches as well. So I think the witches were kind of like the people who had been hit the hardest by the pollution. And when Banquo (Tom Hickey) came back from the dead, instead of just coming back and staring, the witches crawled on top of him and started spitting water on top of his head and he would stare there with water trickling down his face. And I was like, "O my gosh. That is so creepy!" There was also a ghost named Hecate (Allie Long) who is the master of the witches and she had this very long outfit that would project faces of Banquo's descendants who will become kings. I thought they made Hecate super creepy, but not as creepy as the witches, which was a good idea because if it was any creepier everyone would have nightmares.

I think that Lady Macbeth's (Maria Stephens) scene when she came out and was sleepwalking was very scary and kind of depressing. The thing was that she had on more modern day clothes and was carrying a lantern and there was a red light shining on her as she said all these words. And she would just go into these crying fits. And even though she was a terrible person, she was realizing her terrible ways, and it seemed like she regretted them. So you wanted to reach out and help her and say, "I'll help you, Lady Macbeth. It will be ok!" I think that usually Lady Macbeth uses her sexiness to make all these bad things happen, but this Lady Macbeth wasn't just trying to use her sexiness to make Macbeth (John Mossman) do bad things. There were other tactics too, like just acting like a loving wife and just being like, "This is the logical thing to do: killing the king so you'll be king faster. Oh, but then you have to kill Banquo too." And then Macbeth gets carried away with the rest of it.

I think that the character of Macbeth is a very hard one to portray because at the beginning you want him to seem like a nice guy, but then he has to get more and more evil as the show goes on so you basically have to switch characters. He is not a complete jerk at the end because you feel sorry for him because he has lost his favorite thing in the whole world, which is his wife. When Banquo came back from the dead, Macbeth was just so terrified and he was like a crazy person trying not to be crazy when he said, "It is nothing to those who know me." I thought it was super scary when Macbeth killed the two supposed murderers of Duncan. And I was not expecting it and they just screamed and it just happened and it was just so scary. It shows you how evil he is that he just killed innocent people for himself. Usually you don't see him kill them, but in this version you do. I found that terrifying, but it was still very awesome. I also thought it was cool that instead of just using swords in the fights (choreography by David Blixt) like they usually do in Macbeth, Macbeth and Macduff used a chain and would swing it back and forth.

I really loved the porter (Long). I thought that she was hilarious and also very very drunk. She would just get so mad about people knocking at the door and disrupting her sleep. And she talks with MacDuff (Frank Nall) and Ross (Eric Leonard) and I loved that she did not care whatsoever about what was going on with those people's lives. She was just like, I really want to go back to sleep and I really have to pee.

People who would like this show are people who like scary witches, Macbeth in the future, and drunk porters. I think people should definitely definitely go see this show. I really loved the performances and this really awesome take on Macbeth.

Photos: Tim Knight

Review of Theater Oobleck's Song About Himself

Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called Song About Himself. It was by Mickle Maher and Theater Oobleck never has a director, kind of like Back Room Shakespeare. It was about a woman named Carol (Diana Slickman) who heard about this website where you could meet people like yourself and people unlike yourself where she met a nameless Host/Hostess (Colm O'Reilly). She also met a guy named Tod (Guy Massey) who was kind of in love with Carol because he didn't really know anyone or anything. Something bad has happened in the world, but there are people still alive, but things are sort of crappy and some people can't really put together sentences. She is lonely so she goes on this find-friends site so she can meet other people that can speak. This is like the one web site that there is because the others don't exist anymore. It is kind of like if Facebook just plummeted and somebody went back to MySpace and nobody else really wanted to. But then it seems like the Host/Hostess really wants Carol to stay, kind of like Candy Crush, how they make you super addicted to it and you keep going back even though you don't really want to. It is about feeling lonely, coming back even though you don't know why, and hopefulness.

There wasn't anything on the stage except for a spotlight (lighting design by Martha Bayne)and the characters would say the stage directions. Like the Host/Hostess would say "fading" when the light was fading. And he would say that all the time whenever the lights came down. And sometimes you wouldn't see people you would just hear them. And then that was more mysterious and also it was actually more realistic because actually if you were online you probably wouldn't see their actual lips moving or their actual faces just their words if you were just on Facebook or email or something. I thought it would make a cool movie if they did this show but then the only things that you saw were the tops of their heads and see their typing and hear a voiceover. It would be cool to have a voiceover even though you wouldn't need it because this entire play is about speaking and not being able to talk.

I thought that Tod was a really interesting character because he was a mailman and everybody was saying that mailmen were mentally ill. And he still seemed like a very sane person because when he got to know Carol on the weed--the worldwide weed--he wanted to meet her in real life so it seemed like he could speak and some of the other people left in the world seemed more insane. Like Carol's neighbors can't really talk, but he had a special thing like Carol: they can both really talk. Tod is in this because the audience wants to be able to want two people to get together and live happily ever after, but then when there are obstacles and everything is not going as planned, it makes the entire thing more emotional.

The nameless Host/Hostess was kind of like the comic relief but you kind of felt sorry for him because he was just a thing of the weed. And in that world, being a part of the internet, it was a bad thing. You couldn't know if you were actually real or not. You felt sorry for him a lot because he knew he wasn't human but he wanted Carol to be his friend. But then she didn't really want to, when she just wanted to talk to Tod instead of talking to the nameless Host/Hostess. And I thought it was super funny how mad he got when someone wouldn't lengthy post. Then he would be like, "You have to lengthy post! CAROL!" I think he wanted her to lengthy post because then that means they could talk about the lengthy post and they could back-and-forth. I think that a computer program, kind of like a virtual pet or a virtual friend like Siri, can still want things and refuse to do things. And he could have been a person typing what he was saying. Computer programs are made by people programming computers!

The character of Carol was sad because she was such a messed up person but then kind of comical still because of some of the very strange things she said to the nameless Host/Hostess. Sometimes she would be like, "I practiced the clarinet!" and she would just flip out about how much she had practiced and how there should be more people on YouSpake, the website that they are on. But then the heartbreaking part is when she wants to be able to meet Tod and she finds out she can't. I can't say why because that would give away the story. And she also watches this TV show that is funny/sad. It is called Song About Himself and there is this guy who says that they will listen to the great poet but then the thing is that they never end up getting to it because either the disc is smudged or they can't find it. Or the most funny one was when she was talking to the nameless Host/Hostess about it and she was listening to Song About Himself and she was like, "They are actually going to get to listen to the great poet!" but then the nameless Host/Hostess said, "I know this show. I have actually seen this one. They drop it behind the couch." And then she was like, "Oh. Damn it. They did drop it behind the couch!" They never actually get to the thing you have been waiting for, but Carol always has hope that everything will be okay in the end. The TV show is kind of like the show because Carol wants to listen to the great poet and you feel like she never will, but you still have hope. So you are like Carol. And Carol is like the guy on the TV. And it is like a line of being like people. The nameless Host/Hostess really wants to hear words and poetry, that's why he wants lengthy posts, so that he can read them and be happy. But you think he's never going to get them.

People who would like this show are people who like poetry, lengthy posts, and clarinets. I think people should definitely go see this show. It is eye-opening and it will blow your mind. And I actually think that while I was writing the review I understood it even better than when I was watching it. So, I think it would be good if when you got home you could write down some ideas that you had about the show and you can think about those ideas for a little while.

Photos: Evan Hanover

Review of The Plagiarists' These Saints Will Burn

Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called These Saints Will Burn. It was by Robert Stewart and it was directed by Jack Dugan Carpenter. It was about Joan of Arc (Sara Jean McCarthy) and her first battle and how she got there. She met a lot of people along the way, like a mercenary named The Bastard R (Sean McGill), a guy who is a lot like Baudricourt (Julia Stemper), and the Dauphin (Melissa Reeves). And it all starts because of these saints--St. Sebastian (Stemper), St. Catherine (Jessica Saxvik), and Saint Margaret (Reeves)--who are kind of like bad friends to her because they encourage her to die because then she can become a saint. But I'm like, "What if she doesn't want to become a saint right at that moment. What if she wants to live a full life and then become a saint?" It definitely was a very different way of telling Joan of Arc's story. I thought the puppets were pretty awesome. Even though the fighting was very gross, it was still pretty fun to watch. I think people could have fun at this show if they want to have their minds twisted and turned about Joan of Arc and the story.

I thought that the puppets (designed by Andrew Marchetti) were cool. I really liked the kind of roughness, so they didn't look like puppets you would buy at the store. They looked very homemade and awesome. I think that Jeux the Crow (Tony Kaehny) was adorable and looked like an actual crow that you would see outside. Like, it was a little scruffy but still adorable, kind of like a newborn crow. He seemed like a best friend to Joan, and that made it even more sad at the end when they are both burned. She is in the pyre and they hand her the crow, which is like in the original story someone makes her a cross out of two sticks to die with. So the crow is like the cross. I think they chose to make the puppets of the powerful people giant so then they could tower over Joan but you could see that she still had power even though she was small. You don't usually think of puppets as powerful, you think of them as weak. If you feel you are being puppet-ed by someone, you feel like you have no power. She was small, but still she could beat them.

There is a lot of fights and violence in the show. Some of it I thought was pretty awesome. But some of it I felt like it was a little too over-the-top in grossness. Sometimes I was like, "Yeah! Go and kill that person!" but sometimes it made me sick to my stomach because you would see someone being dragged offstage and there were a bunch of thumps and The Bastard R would come back on stage with a severed head (props by Kailee Tomasic) with blood and veins coming out of it. I can't get that face out of my head. Oh my gosh, it was so creepy. But one of the things I really liked was the first few moves when it wasn't very gross and he would just come around and stab them and you were like, "Yay!" I think the play is asking, "Does God really want people to die so France can have the Dauphin become king?" Or maybe it is asking if Joan of Arc is sent by God. You kind of feel like that because of the really gross violence that happened and how you kind of feel sorry for the British because a bunch of them were brutally murdered by a person who was working for someone who might not have known the difference between a rainstorm and God sending a message.

There were also some kind of confusing parts to the show. Pretty close to the beginning there was a scene with the mother and the father of Joan of Arc. And they bought her a crocodile and she was allergic to it. And Baudricourt found that very funny because she was allergic to the crocodile. Sometimes I like weird and crazy things. When I got home I looked up to see if there was actually a Joan of Arc crocodile incident and I couldn't find anything. It would have been funnier if it had been more related to the story. Like if she had gotten on her horse and was allergic to that and couldn't stop sneezing on the entire ride there. I was also confused about how The Bastard R got to be a saint because he was such a bad person. He just murders people without a care. He doesn't even listen for mercy; he just murders them. I don't know how murdering gets you to heaven. I also didn't understand why they kept switching back from French to English. The thing is, some people in the audience didn't speak fluent French, so you might not be able to put together a sentence if some of it was in complicated French. I understood some of the French, but sometimes I got lost on the whole sentence.

People who would like this show are people who like adorable crows, bloody fight scenes, and big puppets. This show will boggle your mind but you can still have a fun time. It makes you think about the actual story of Joan of Arc and if all the things that she said were actually true.

Photos: Joe Mazza at Brave Lux

Review of Remy Bumppo's Travesties

Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called Travesties. It was by Tom Stoppard and it was directed by Nick Sandys. It was about Henry Carr (Jeff Cummings) who was remembering all the memories of his life when he was young when he was in a production of The Importance of Being Earnest that James Joyce (James Houton) directed in Zurich, Switzerland. He had gone to court with James Joyce because he paid for his own trousers and thought he should be paid more for that. Tristan Tzara (Greg Matthew Anderson), who was a Dadaist, made poetry by drawing different words from other poems out of a hat and was in Zurich at the same time the show was going on. And also, Lenin (Keith Neagle) was there with his wife Nadya (Jodi Kingsley) and he wants for communism to thrive and he is trying to get back in to Russia to help with the revolution. This play is about a bunch of different famous people who all get together for only a few days and about Henry Carr's memory of them all. It kind of puts two stories together, one that really happened and one that didn't. I think that this is a great show. It is strange, but in a really great way.

Travesty means copying something that isn't yours and making fun of it. What Stoppard travesties in this is The Importance of Being Earnest, James Joyce and his writing, Lenin's life, and Carr’s actual experience that he has. From The Importance of Being Earnest he travesties the love interests. I really love the song that Cecily (Meg Warner) and Gwendolyn (Kelsey Brennan) sing together about how they both seem to have the same fiancee. And also at the end of song, when they find out that they have different fiancees, they find they have feelings for each other now that they find that they have both been wronged. And I loved how they made Cecily a librarian, because usually she is just an innocent girl who just likes to pick flowers. But in this she is a very smart and educated communist librarian. I liked how, instead of having a cigarette case that said Earnest, this had a library card that said Tristan. It seemed funny but it was also a very big travesty of Earnest because it didn't take all of it, it just took some of it. I also loved how they kept saying "Not Earnest, the other one" when they keep meaning Algernon.

James Joyce at the beginning was travestied because he was dressed up like a leprechaun and he talked in an exaggerated Irish accent and he talked in limericks. I haven't read any of his books, but I know he wrote Ulysses because my mom read it and she kept telling me how weird it was. But then, also, being weird is not the same as being a limerick. And when Tristan Tzara was telling him all about Dadaism and how it is actually poetry, Joyce put on his hat and started picking off the words that had fallen on his head. I thought that was pretty cool because I stayed for the talkback they talked about how they decided not to have him doing magic tricks because it would be too distracting. I think it would have been more distracting, but they still didn't have him just standing there doing nothing but talking. He was talking about Dadaism and how it wasn't really poetry and he was picking off the pieces of the Dada poem like it was a disease. So what he was doing was less distracting than him just pulling a dove out of his coat because it had to do more with what was actually going on and wasn't so random. Joyce is very weird, but he is not random. I actually liked some of the Dada poems because they put a bunch of beautiful words together and they still actually made some sense.

Lenin seemed like one of the nicest men in the show because he loved his wife and his wife loved him. Even though the words are probably his actual words, it wasn't exactly like reading his letters because it wasn't in Russian and also because his accent was used a little bit for comedy. Like when he said, "the vig" he put on this very 80's style blond wig. The wig was supposed to disguise him as a Swedish deaf-mute so then he didn't actually have to speak Swedish! Lenin and Nadya seemed like they were in love with each other and they talked about going to the theater and his favorite shows. And I think that that is very sweet. And they started talking about how Beethoven made him cry, and you could actually see his tears swelling up, and I thought that was beautiful.

This is a travesty of Henry Carr's life because he is saying he was the rich man in the embassy and in his thoughts his boss Bennett (Scott Olson) was his servant. Bennett always told him about what was happening in the news lately and he would always have such a descriptive version of the story, like how he had every single detail about what was happening with the revolution just in his mind. I thought that was funny. I think that it is cool how they made a travesty of his own life and because he was old he forgot some of the parts of his own life that were very important. Like how he wasn't the master of the house. He is confusing Algernon's life with his own.

People who would like this show are people who like Swedish deaf-mutes, leprechaun poets, and not Earnest--the other one. I think people should definitely go see this show. I had a lot of fun and it was very strange and interesting. I feel like I actually learned a lot from it; it was very funny, but it was also educational.


Photos: Johnny Knight

Review of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea at Strawdog Theatre Company

Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. It was based on the novel by Jules Verne and adapted by Clint Sheffer and Ann Sonneville. It was directed by Mike Mroch. It was about a scientist named Professor Arronax (Mike Steele), a scientist's apprentice called Conseil (Walls Trimble), and an adventurer named Ned Land (Lee Russell) who were all taken aboard a submarine and no one had really heard of or seen a submarine and they were told by Captain Nemo (Kathrynne Wolf) that they had to stay on there forever, but they wanted to go back up to the world that is not under the sea. They all tried to find a way to get out, but with man-eating monkeys and giant squids they didn't really know how to escape. I found that that made a very good story and I really liked it.

When you walk in, there are a bunch of people talking at a bar. And there are people playing music, including the distraught bartender (Emilie Modaff), but then you don't really know what's going on. I thought, I didn't remember the part of the story where everyone is having a good time in a bar! Then it just breaks out into a bar fight (violence design by R&D Choreography) which is pretty cool because it is a really small space and that means you are very close to all of the action. But then the scene also had some very strange music, and it was so catchy but the thing is it was a bunch of bad seafood puns put into one song. So, I didn't really like the use of the ensemble (Brad Brubaker, Scott Cupper, Modaff, Erin O'Brien, Austin Oie, Alexis Randolph, Skyler Schrempp, and Kelsey Shipley) in the context of the singing in the bar scene, but I did like the fighting. One of the things that I really liked about the ensemble was how they made sea monsters with their bodies and Captain Nemo and her crew would fight them. Another thing that I liked was how the ensemble played these man-eating monkeys!

Ned Land, Professor Arronax, and Conseil were all very strong in their parts. You saw their characters develop a lot throughout the show. Ned Land developed from being an angry man who got into a lot of fights to being a man who could understand problems and how to fix them instead of just getting mad. Professor Arronax goes from being a very uptight and kind of awkward man to being an adventurous kind of man. And Conseil learned how to notice that even if it is a big adventure, something could still go wrong. One of my favorite parts was when they were all being tracked by the man-eating monkeys, and I really liked their faces when they saw the man-eating monkeys, and I loved how they reacted. They looked so frightened, but they didn't make it too cheesy, but it was still very funny. Another one of the parts I liked was when they were getting their dinner, and they were eating all the delicious stuff on their plate. They were very slow and cautious at first, and then they just started digging in and eating and eating. I think it was probably sushi because they were getting their food from down under the sea and because sushi is one of the best foods ever. It looked like they were eating fish roe, and I love fish roe sushi like masago!

Captain Nemo is a guy usually but this time it is a girl and I thought that was super awesome because usually in books the powerful captain is a man. I also liked how they implied gay marriage and didn't just change wife to husband. I think that was very awesome and I was super happy. They are many powerful women in this show because Captain Nemo employs women to go under the sea and sometimes they die in combat with sea monsters and they fight for science when they explore with Professor Arronax. I think that Wolf's performance was great because she didn't make Captain Nemo too weird so that you didn't understand her and didn't feel sorry for her. You see that she seems to have a very hard life and she wanted to get away from it. I wish that you could know what captain Nemo's problem actually was, but that's not their fault. That is the original writer of the book's fault.

People who would like this show are people who like sea monsters, submarines, scientists, and sushi. I think people should go see this show. It closes tomorrow, so go see it because it is a really fun show!


Photos: TCMcG Photography

Ada Grey Interviews For You: Dani Bryant and Sarah Rose Graber of Adventure Stage...

<span style="font-size: 12px;">Here is my interview with Sarah Rose Graber and Dani Bryant who are the director and creator of the Adventure Stage show Worthy.  Thanks to Dani for editing and Spencer Blair for filming! I hope you enjoy it!</span>

Review of Mr. Burns at Theater Wit

Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called Mr. Burns. It was by Anne Washburn; the score was by Michael Friedman and the lyrics were by Anne Washburn. It was directed by Jeremy Wechsler and the music director was Andra Velis Simon and the choreographer was Brigitte Ditmars. It was about this giant disaster in America and how the people survived after it and they all try to keep themselves happy by remembering and performing episodes of The Simpsons. I really liked this show. It was bittersweet but also funny and it was definitely scary too. It makes you think a lot about how you could prevent this electricity disaster from happening, about what people are forced to do when they are forced from their homes, and how television can make people happy and remember all the good things that happened.

I thought that the first act was one of the more sad acts because it was right after the disaster had happened, but it was still heartwarming. It started out with a bunch of people sitting around a fire summarizing a Simpsons episode. Matt (Daniel Desmarais) and Jenny (Leah Urzendowski) were the main summarizers and the other people, Maria (Christina Hall) and Sam (Andrew Jessop), would be adding on to what the other people say. I think that is showing how much The Simpsons were a part of these people's lives and how they made them feel at home. I think that is heartwarming to show how much The Simpsons have impacted the world. This act was sad because everyone doesn't really know if their family is alive or dead. And there is this woman (Hannah Gomez) crying in the corner with a doll and you think that that was probably her daughter's doll. When Gibson (Jeff Trainor) comes along with his booklet, and they are trying to find out what parts of their families are safe, he doesn't really have information for them. When Maria started crying, because it is so uncertain and it is terrible not to know, I started crying. But they all comfort each other by talking about The Simpsons, and Gibson remembers a part they couldn't figure out which was that they were singing "Three Little Maids from School" and he starts singing songs from Mikado and HMS Pinafore. And then it makes you feel more hopeful.

Act two was one of the more funny acts. It took place in a tv-studio-like theater. They are making a Simpsons show and two commercials. They were rehearsing for their show. I really liked the part when the loving husband (Trainor) said to his wife (Leslie Ann Sheppard) a line about what she wanted to do and he said it the way the director (Gomez) had told him to and then he just glares at the director. Also in this act, they had this really strange commercial for a car where they would break into a song and somebody else would break into a different song and everybody tore off their clothes and they were in rock & roll outfits. And I thought that was pretty funny. When the loving husband jumped up onto the car and started singing, it was so funny because it was just so very cheesy and he just hopped up on the front of the car and started pounding his chest. It was so weird; I loved it! They are keeping the entertainment and the laughs going even after such a hard time. You can tell that they are still not great because they still don't have the same technology as they used to and everyone has to walk around with guns so they can protect themselves.

The third act was the saddest act most definitely because in the first act The Simpsons was such an important part of the survivors' lives, and in the third act all the characters from The Simpsons are going through really hard times in this performance that is being put on in the future. The most horrible thing is when Maggie stops crying. If you go and see the show, you'll know what I mean. I find it so hard to see characters that I have seen on tv and that everyone knows and loves be in a tragedy. Like characters, even if you know they aren't real, if you see them die in a show it is still really horrible for you because you feel like you know them so well. I think that the third act was showing the people who were descendants of the survivors what happened during the disaster, like metaphorically kind of. It was saying how terrible it was and how lucky they were it hadn't happened to them. And we should remember the people who died as heroes. I think it is kind of being a message to us about like World War II and how we should remember those people. The playwright is not like a fortune teller, but she is trying to show what could happen and how we should prevent it.

People who would like this show are people who like The Simpsons, cheesy commercials, and funny scary stories. I think that people should definitely definitely go see this show. It is closing soon, so go get your tickets!

Photos: Charles Osgood