Play: Next Fall at Performance Network

We saw this excellent play on Friday night.

The reviews from annarbor.com and the Detroit Free Press give the substance. I am closer to the annarbor.com review in my overall view. This is one of the better productions we have seen at Performance Network over the past six years.

I do disagree with the annarbor.com reviewer on one point, and that is the wisdom of casting John Seibert, consistently one of the best actors in the PN pool, as the father. I thought he was perfect for the role and, indeed, that he gave the strongest performance in the show. But I also interpreted his character a bit differently than the two reviewers, both of whom seem to assume that he was clueless about what his son was up to. I read the father's history and dialogue in the play as indicating that he know, didn't approve, but loved his son too much to want to have it out about it.

The other actors are also very strong, particularly Andrew Huff as Adam and Barbara Coven as Arlene.

Recommended.

Play: The War Since Eve

The current Performance Network (PN) offering is called The War Since Eve. It has just had its run extended for a couple more weeks.

Usually, we end up seeing PN plays towards the end of their runs, having rescheduled two or three times (something PN is remarkably patient with). This time, we saw the play early on, during previews. There were a few bumpy spots during the preview, such as a suitcase that kept tipping over, but I expect they have all been worked out by now.

The play itself is quite funny and pokes equally at feminists and non-feminists. I particularly enjoyed Leah Smith's performance as Milty, one of the two daughters of (imaginary) feminist icon Roxie Firestone, but all three actors were strong.

Reviews from the Detroit Free Press, the Detroit Examiner and Encore Michigan.

Recommended.

Play: The Drowsy Chaperone

We saw the Drowsy Chaperone at Performance Network last week. It is the second show of the season and, more to the point, one of the funniest plays I have ever seen. Amazing writing, amazing acting, and overall a couple of hours of very good, post-modern fun.

Highly recommended.

Play: Woman Before a Glass

We saw Woman Before a Glass at Performance Network on Thursday night. The play features Naz Edwards as Peggy Guggenheim, eccentric art collector, inveterate cougar and niece of the Guggenheim for whom the museum in NY is named. Directed by my UM colleague Malcolm Tulip, it is hard to see how you could end up with anything other than an excellent show.

Today is the last day, it is well worth a look.

Play: Little Shop of Horrors

We saw Little Shop of Horrors at Performance Network in Ann Arbor last night and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Unlike the reviewer at annarbor.com, I have not seen the play before so I can't comment from firsthand experience on the different choices PN made in their staging, but I thought the whole thing worked really well and was one of the highlights of the season. And I say all that as someone who is not generally a big fan of musicals.

In short: dark, demented, and lots of fun. Recommended.

Play: It Came From Mars!

We saw this on Saturday night at Performance Network.

Hilarious! And highly recommended.

Christmas Carol'd at Performance Network

We saw this play on Thursday night and enjoyed it a lot.

Regular Performance Network attendees will recognize a number of the players: John Siebert as Scrooge is particularly effective. The set design attains PN's usual high standards.

This version of the classic Dickens tale adds a bit of humor here and there, along with occasional postmodern bits that remind the audience that they are indeed an audience and not really in 19th century London.

Recommended for a bit of holiday fun.

Theatre: A Picasso

We saw the Performance Network's production of "A Picasso" last night. Both Lisa and I thought it the best play of the 2008-09 season, of which it is the concluding production. The play imagines an interrogation of sorts between Picasso and a female gestapo agent in Paris during the early phases of the war. The writing is excellent and John Manfredi as Picasso amazes with his intensity and complete immersion into the character. If the production has a weakness, it is that Manfredi at times overshadows Emily Sutton-Smith, though her performance grew over the course of the play.

Our medium size (and somewhat older) Saturday matinee audience did not give a standing ovation, but they should have.

Highly recommended.

Theater: Fat Pig

I saw this play at the Comedy Theatre in London's West End on Thursday night with some friends from the Policy Studies Institute.

Despite claims on the website that this is a comedy (something one also might expect based on the name of the theater that is hosting it) it is really a biting social commentary with a healthy portion of jokes to smooth the ride. The ending is emotionally brutal. The writing is excellent, the set clever, the music between scenes too loud, and the acting generally excellent. They even had mint chip ice cream available at intermission.

But you'll like it better if you do not come in expecting to be laughing as you exit.

Recommended.

9 Parts of Desire at Performance Network

Lisa and I saw "Heather Roffo's 9 Parts of Desire" at Performance Network in Ann Arbor this weekend.

It is a one-woman show with nine characters, all of whom are Iraqi women. They range from intellectuals in exile in London to sellers of stolen goods on the street. The writing and acting are both amazing and the play packs a powerful punch. It is political in the large sense but not the small. It took me a couple of hours to recover afterwards.

This is one of the best shows at Performance Networks in our three years of having season tickets.

Highly recommended.

Michigan difference

A nice piece from the Detroit Free Press on Malcolm Tulip who, among other things, is on the faculty of Michigan's theatre department.

I saw the productions of "I Am My Own Wife" and "Amadeus" mentioned in the article. The first was one of the two best pieces of theatre I have seen in my life.

I am looking forward to Tulip's upcoming show at Performance Network, where Lisa and I have season tickets and where I have been quite impressed with the quality of the productions. I went through a period of seeing a lot of theatre in Chicago when I was in graduate school and Performance Network is consistently at the level of the better productions in Chicago.