Author: B. Mitchell

Indie Theatre, Reviews

REVIEW: #CORIOLANUS

The virtues of Theater in Asylum’s production of #Coriolanus lie, as the Volscian general Aufidius says, “in th’ interpretation.”  Though Paul Bedard’s social media savvy staging of Shakespeare’s play occasionally trips over the jittery tech at its center, it consistently redeems itself with wildly inventive maneuvers, including costumes straight out of Aeon Flux, impressively choreographed callisthenic dance fighting, and a surprisingly bubbly sense of humor. … Continue reading REVIEW: #CORIOLANUS

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Indie Theatre, Pre-Game

#CORIOLANUS PRE-GAME: WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S CORIOLANUS

Tomorrow I will be posting my review for Theater in Asylum’s production of #Coriolanus, a 21st Century, social media inspired adaptation of Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Coriolanus.  But I must first air some grievances:  before deciding to see this I knew nothing about either Theater in Asylum’s work OR Shakespeare’s play.  Though I have caught up with the company as much as possible on … Continue reading #CORIOLANUS PRE-GAME: WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S CORIOLANUS

Unknown's avatarB. Mitchell3 Comments
Indie Theatre, Reviews

REVIEW: FRANKENSTEIN UPSTAIRS

Ignoring all of its other virtues, Mac Rogers’ play Frankenstein Upstairs certainly deserves special commendation for including such an intriguing program note: Frankenstein Upstairs is set in Brooklyn in the present day.  As the action takes place in the same fictional universe as Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, the novel and its adaptations do not exist in this play, and the name “Frankenstein” holds no associations … Continue reading REVIEW: FRANKENSTEIN UPSTAIRS

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Indie Theatre, Pre-Game

FRANKENSTEIN UPSTAIRS PRE-GAME: THE HONEYCOMB TRILOGY

This week I will be reviewing Mac Rogers’ play Frankenstein Upstairs.  Before the review posts tomorrow, I am putting up a series of “Pre-Game” posts, where I talk a little about the  Mac Rogers plays I’ve covered before and how perspective figures into each of them.  You can read the first part, about Rogers’ play Universal Robots, here. Throughout 2012, Gideon Productions presented the full cycle of … Continue reading FRANKENSTEIN UPSTAIRS PRE-GAME: THE HONEYCOMB TRILOGY

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Indie Theatre, Pre-Game

FRANKENSTEIN UPSTAIRS PRE-GAME: UNIVERSAL ROBOTS

This week I will be reviewing Mac Rogers’ play Frankenstein Upstairs, which according to the press materials transplants the Frankenstein story into a contemporary Brooklyn apartment building.  As the title suggests, the main characters are Dr. Frankenstein’s downstairs neighbors.  This crafty slant doesn’t come as much of a surprise to me; I’ve been covering Rogers’ work for a couple of years now and have found … Continue reading FRANKENSTEIN UPSTAIRS PRE-GAME: UNIVERSAL ROBOTS

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Moving Pictures, Reviews

REVIEW: Upstream Color

Upstream Color is an undulating  new tangle of a film by writer/director/actor/composer/editor/sound editor Shane Carruth, who earned a lot of well-deserved good will with his previous effort, the inside-out time travel story Primer. In terms of scope and subject matter, Upstream Color can function as a kind of secular answer to writer/director Terrence Malick’s deeply religious The Tree of Life.  Where Malick pulled the camera way back in time and space to make his point that the human condition is only … Continue reading REVIEW: Upstream Color

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Moving Pictures, Reviews

REVIEW: The Hangover Part III

– ONE MILD SPOILER – The Hangover Part III is the mostly enjoyable, but also mostly perfunctory conclusion to a trio of comedies that started out in a very true place: examining the way that one guy who no one  knows or is really friends with always ends up at a bachelor party, and thus changes the group dynamic in a big way. Part III, however, is essentially a heist movie, dutifully built around moderately staged sky-diving, building-repelling … Continue reading REVIEW: The Hangover Part III

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