Upcoming: Antigone by Jean Anouilh, Oh Dragon Theatre Company at Casa de Luz, November 9 - 18

Oh Dragon Theatre Company

presents

Antigone
by Jean Anouilh

directed by Nathan Brockett
Casa De Luz Auditorium - 1701 Toomey Road Austin, TX 78704 (click for map)
Saturdays Nov. 10 and 17 at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Friday, November 16 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, November 18 at 8 p.m.Ticket price - $10.00




Nathan Brockett adapts French playwright Jean Anouilh's modernized version of the Greek tragedy Antigone. The story is set in the sleek palace of a fascist state ruled by Creon. His niece Antigone is horrified by Creon's order that the body of her brother--who led a rebellion against the state--be left on the battlefield to rot. When she violates the edict, guards haul her before Creon, who struggles to convince her that his reasons are honorable, despite the ugly consequences, but Antigone remains steadfast, even though her death will result.

Featuring the talents of Danielle Evon Ploeger, Richard Dodwell, Samantha Wiley, Austin Amelio, Anna Schatte, Cami Eastman, Kel Sanders, Michael Davis, and Dalton Hamilton.

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee, Mary Moody Northen Theatre, St. Edward's University, November 11 - 21

I knew that this was going to be intense. I had invited friends to see it with me, and we had seats in the middle of the front row, south side of the "theatre in the square" at the Mary Moody Northen Theatre. After Michelle Polgar had dedicated the opening night's performance to the memory of Oscar Brockett, that grand old man of Austin theatre, the lights began to fade and I had a feeling similar to that you get when you light the fuse on a fistful of firecrackers and throw them down.

My usual view is that a cinema version of the text is irrelevant to the stage performance, but here I have to admit that in any staging of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? the ghost of Richard Burton and the presence of Elizabeth Taylor roil fitfully about the set. The movie rating code had just been instituted when Mike Nichols' film was released in 1966. The MPAA had relented after a couple of minor revisions of the dialogue and gave it a "suggested for mature audiences" rating. In my town meant that you had to be 18 years of age to get in, unless accompanied by a parent. My father, a secret movie buff, insisted that I see it and he stood behind me as my 17-year-old self bought my ticket.

Thirteen Academy award nominations, including for Nichols as director and all four in the cast, with five wins, including Taylor as the monstrous Martha and Sandy Dennis as an unforgettably inebriated bubble-blowing little wife. So how can a contemporary theatrical production stand up to that?

The answer in Austin is simple but three-fold: by playing to an audience predominantly of college students who do not know the film; by enlisting Babs George for the role of Martha and Ev Lunning Jr. for the role of George; and with Christie Moore's tight direction in Leilah Stewart's starkly effective, almost claustrophobic set.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: subUrbia by Eric Bogosian, Transit Theatre Group, St. Edward's University, April 28 - May 2

Received directly:

Transit Theatre Troupe presents

subUrbia

by Eric Bogosian

Wednesday, April 28, to Sunday, May 2 at St. Edward's University, at the loading dock of the Fondren Hall Campus Store on Moody Drive. All performances will start at 10:00pm.

From playwright and bestselling author of Notes from the Underground comes a story of growing despair. Five high school friends loiter their lives away in the suffocating monotony of their suburban hometown, Burnfield. High school graduates, each struggles with the uncertainty of their futures and the arrival of an old friend, now an upcoming big time guitarist and singer. While some see their hometown of Burnfield as the suburban ideal of quiet comfort, their inescapably safe world only feeds their frustrations, and a night of drinking and partying careens recklessly toward violence, tragedy and death.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .