In the demented, clutch-popping and mud puddle shallow Learn To Be Latina (Mixed Blood Theatre, through May 13), by Enrique Urueta, a sweet-tempered, blissfully open Lebanese-American (clear emphasis on the latter), Hanan Mashalani, is informed that although she exhibits serious…
Author: John Olive
Interview: Jeannine Coulombe
It doesn’t rain but it pours: playwright Jeannine Coulombe has two major productions opening within a week. The first, The Mill, produced by Workhaus Collective, performing (as always) at the Playwrights Center, opens this Friday, April 20 and closes May…
Spring Awakening, a co-production with Theater Latté Da and The University of Minnesota Department of Theatre Arts and Dance
I’m often asked, in my exalted position as theater reviewer, if I’ve seen anything really good. I hem and haw. “This play at the Guthrie’s not bad, and that play at CTC is terrific if you’re seven years old, and…
Time Stands Still at the Guthrie Theater
Sarah Goodwin, the hero of Donald Margulies‘s often penetrating (and often static) Time Stands Still (at the Guthrie, through May 20), thrives on conflict. On blood, on insanity, the sudden violence of war. She has acquired – or so she…
The Birthday Party at the Jungle Theater
Pinteresque. The word has permanently entered the English lexicon. It refers to something seemingly straightforward – a word, a gesture, a simple prop, a mere pause – that implies that we live atop a miasmic sea of horror and nastiness. …
Interview: Jeremiah Gamble
We had the pleasure recently of speaking To Jeremiah Gamble. Jeremiah has written, stars in, and (with spouse Vanessa Gamble) has composed the music for Kingdom Undone, a remarkably intelligent and challenging telling of the Passion of Christ story. The…
Million Dollar Quartet at the State Theatre
I did a scientific analysis of the audience at Million Dollar Quartet (at the State Theatre, through April 1) (I looked around). I immediately perceived that a person with the Rogaine concession would clean up. The show seems geared largely…
Kingdom Undone at the Southern Theater
Kingdom Undone (Southern Theater, through April 8, 2012) tells the story of the passion of Christ. Ostensibly looking to celebrate Passover, Jesus makes his entrance into a Jerusalem awash in revolutionary fervor. Zealots appear quite willing to employ terrorism in…
Edith Can Shoot Things And Hit Them by Mu Performing Arts, at Mixed Blood Theatre
Edith Can Shoot Things And Hit Them (Mu Performing Arts, performing at Mixed Blood Theatre, through April 1) wants to be a movie. Much of what we hear about in A. Rey Pamatmat‘s play – Edith’s armed “securing the perimeter”…
Hay Fever at the Guthrie Theater
Hay Fever (at the Guthrie, through April 22) belongs to the designers. Enter the Wurtele Thrust and behold – “Wow.” – Janet Bird‘s sumptuous, perfectly painted, gorgeously lit (by Philip S. Rosenberg) set. Paintings compete with rough drawings and eccentric…