One of the most troubled and lawless places in the world right now is the Democratic Republic of Congo, suffering the malign aftermath of colonial rule, riven by inner conflict, the site of proxy wars involving neighboring countries, and made particularly dangerous by the presence in its soil of rich…
Fiction. In the first scene of Fiction, two people argue and flirt in a Paris cafe. They seem entirely familiar with each other; their argument, though heightened and intensely clever, still has the comfortable, teasing, accustomed rhythms you expect of a conversation between lovers. But in the second scene we…
This weekend, local dancer Tara Rynders is opening her home to the public for two days of live, intimate performances incorporating movement, music and visual art. Well, the in-house shows have long been sold out, but Rynders will be broadcasting the one-artist-to-one-audience-member interactions in real time via her own ustream…
Fiction. In the first scene of Fiction, two people argue and flirt in a Paris cafe. They seem entirely familiar with each other; their argument, though heightened and intensely clever, still has the comfortable, teasing, accustomed rhythms you expect of a conversation between lovers. But in the second scene we…
March 26, 2011 Update: See photos from Drama Drag last night at Tracks The life of a drag queen is an expensive, high profile existence, and Joel Valenzuela, aka Angelina Essex, knows this routine all too well. The madam of many faces is making his final appearance tomorrow night at…
If the Interwebs are to be believed, Josh Allen may just be the funniest wordsmith Denver has to offer. His 40,000-follower Twitter feed @fireland has been named among the best by the likes of the New York Times, the Washington Post, Gawker and Boing Boing, thanks to his 140-word gems…
Type “The Book of Mormon” into Google right now, and the first thing to come is the eponymous play by Matt Stone and Trey Parker, two Colorado boys who went on to become, we think it’s fair to say at this point, the greatest satirists of a generation. From South…
The greatest strength of Tony Kushner’s Homebody/Kabul lies in the hour-long opening monologue, in which an eccentric British housewife, holding an outdated guidebook to Kabul, tries to get her arms around the great, rich, anguished and turbulent mystery that is Afghanistan. Surrounded by people of diverse cultures and religions, sequentially…
Pakistan’s K2 mountain is the second highest in the world, and it kills climbers: One dies for every four who make the summit. Very few of us can understand what drives those who attempt these summits, deliberately exposing themselves to terror and pain, nor can we know what it feels…
Memory deceives. The written word tries to encapsulate memory, but it, too, deceives — and sometimes it deceives deliberately. And so does playwright Steven Dietz. His plotting for Fiction is cunning, and the layers of complexity he builds around the basic concepts of truth and fiction are even more so…
According to Kent Welborn, the mind behind the samurai host of the new “Laughing Dragon Cake Samurai Fun Show” at the Bovine Metropolis Theater tonight, the intention is not to make fun of Japanese culture. “We’re trying to celebrate it,” he amends, “and we’re trying to get laughs by making…
The Field. Bull McCabe has been farming a few acres for several years — fencing, tearing out weeds, fertilizing — until the barren soil has become a lush pasture for his herd of cows. And now the owner, a poor widow, needs to put the field up for sale. Enter…
I was enthralled the first time I saw Cirque du Soleil, forever ago when all that myth, glitter and spectacle was new to me. I still remember one specific moment clearly: I had the luck to be sitting very near the stage, and at the end of the performance, the…
Some directors might get a hold of the script for David Holstein’s The B-Team — about a group of second-string terrorists who fail at everything they try — and think, “A play about Pakistani terrorists must be cast by Pakistani-Americans. Obviously. Of course.” But not Jeremy Make. No, he cast…
After two months of bankruptcy proceedings, an eviction and at least one accusation of looting, the embattled Shadow Theatre Company opens its first production since it moved An Evening with Nina mid-run from its former space at 1468 Dayton Street to the Aurora Fox in January. The show, In Search…
In its five years of existence so far, the Curious Theatre Company has lured some pretty prodigious figures into its annual Denver Stories production, where it pairs local celebrities with playwrights and has them produce autobiographical short plays; previous lineups have included former Governor Bill Ritter, MCA Denver Director Adam…
Written in 1939, Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes is showing its age — both in the dated characterizations and the high-pitched, melodramatic tone. This is a serious melodrama, though, exploring the shifting of an era as, thanks to industrialization, the old order in the American South gives way to the…
Naughty Pierre, looking naughtyIn the true spirit of cabaret, Lannie Garrett and her Clocktower Cabaret have always brought a diverse array of entertainers to the stage, focusing on the more nostalgic entertainment like burlesque, skits and sing-alongs. Tomorrow night, Clocktower staple and goofball MC Naughty Pierre will be hosting a…
Though it’s set in rural Ireland in 1965, John B. Keane’s The Field, now playing at the Denver Vic, tells a universal story about land — at least on one level. Bull McCabe has been farming a few acres for several years — fencing, tearing out weeds, fertilizing –until the…
If you’re a real Denver old-timer, you might remember the Third Eye, a brave little independent theater that operated out of a second-floor loft at Second and Broadway by local theater pioneers Joey and June Favre. It was a funky little space with black walls, plush red chairs pirated from…
The Catch. Ken Weitzman’s play explores the well-worn concept of baseball as a metaphor for America itself, but in new and interesting ways. In the hands of Darryl Love, the boastful, charismatic player at the center of the story, the ball itself becomes a symbol, its seams stitching over the…
If memory holds, I tried reading Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment when I was a dutiful little swot of about seventeen, and didn’t get much beyond the murder of the old pawnbroker. It’s one of those seminal works I’m sort of ashamed of not having read but probably never will now,…
