Review: ‘Frozen’ at Palo Alto Players (***)
by Joanne Engelhard What a delight to unexpectedly see an icy white bridge appear out of nowhere and, later, watch as a female cast member twirls around once and is now wearing an entirely different gown. Toward play’s ending, gigantic flowers suddenly blossom on the walls of Lucy Stern…
Keep readingReview: ‘The Gods of Comedy’ at Masquers Playhouse (***)
by Charlsie-Kern Kruger As soon as Jean-Paul Demetri as Aristide, a street vendor who is a sort of chorus, comes onstage with charismatic twinkling eyes, I knew that this comedy was in good hands. For a play this goofy, the actors must above all convey a sense of fun,…
Keep readingReview: ‘The Play That goes Wrong’ at Hillbarn Theater (***1/2)
by Joanne Engelhardt A play within a play within a play within a… “The Play That Goes Wrong” isn’t quite that comically confusing, but it’s definitely a somewhat circuitous piece of slapstick that kept last Friday’s opening night crowd lapping up the zany antics happening onstage. Even before the curtain…
Keep readingReview: ‘La Comedia of Errors,’ a bilingual adaptation of Shakespeare’s play by Bill Rauch and Lydia G. Garcia (*****)
by Charlsie-Kern Kruger Let’s start by admitting that Shakespeare’s “Comedy of Errors” is a fine play, but not really a bell ringer for Shakespeare’s genius. It is a type of comedy (servants and masters and mistaken identities) that has been formulaic since Ancient Greece and Rome, and remains formulaic…
Keep readingSomething went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.