Monument, or Four Sisters (A Sloth Play) Sam Chase Magic Theatre What possibly can a missing sister, a jobless actor, an unhappy TV writer, an impending break-up, sea coral, and sloths have in common with monuments and legacies? In Sam Chase’s Monument, or Four Sisters (A Sloth Play), the answer is actually quite a lot. Now in a rapid-paced, video-rich, completely … [Read more...] about Monument, or Four Sisters (A Sloth Play)
Magic Theatre
Don’t Eat the Mangos
While entering the theatre and being tempted to do a few salsa steps to the hip-swiveling Latinx music playing all around us, it is impossible not to notice there are mangos – many rotting – piled on the floor of the tropical house’s kitchen. There is also a tree laden with ripening mangos that is intertwined into the decorative, iron-gate entrance to the house – a tree that … [Read more...] about Don’t Eat the Mangos
The Chinese Lady
“What is happening is a performance. For my entire life is a performance. These words that you hear are not my own. These clothes I wear are not my own. This body that I occupy is not my own.” In 1834, two traders of Far East Oriental imports to New York arranged for a Chinese girl of fourteen and of the wealthy class to come to the United States for two years in order to … [Read more...] about The Chinese Lady
“Oedipus El Rey”
Oedipus El ReyLuis AlfaroMagic TheatreGendell Hing-Hernandez, Armando Rodriguez, Esteban Carmona & Juan Amador“Do we lay down and take what the world has given us?Or do we break down the cycle, the system, and tell new stories?Can we live the story not yet told and the possibility not yet imagined?Or are we fated?”Ten years ago, Magic Theatre staged the world premiere of … [Read more...] about “Oedipus El Rey”
‘In Old Age”
In Old AgeMfoniso UdofiaMagic TheatreSteven Anthony Jones & Nancy MoricetteFor those of us who first met Nigerian immigrant Abasiama Ekpeyoung as a young woman in Houston and have watched her through the happy and troubled times of her long life by seeing some or all of the four prior plays of Mfoniso Udofia’s “Ufot Family Cycle,” seeing her now as an old woman in the … [Read more...] about ‘In Old Age”
“The Resting Place”
The Resting PlaceAshlin HalfnightMagic TheatreJames Carpenter and Cast of The Resting PlaceHow many times a month, a week do we read yet another headline of one person’s atrocious act against innocent others -- be it extortion, murder, or sexual abuse of other adults or of children? And while any passing thoughts and sympathies we may pause a few minutes to contemplate … [Read more...] about “The Resting Place”
“The Gangster of Love”
The Gangster of LoveJessica HagedornMagic TheatreLance Gardner & Golda SargentoTwo pairs of eyes widen to reveal mammoth rings of white around dark, darting balls as a brother and sister sway with the ocean’s waves, looking for the first signs of the Golden Gate. While the girl’s eyes sing with wonder and excitement, the boy’s silently scream of anxiety and maybe … [Read more...] about “The Gangster of Love”
“Reel to Reel”
Reel to ReelJohn KolvenbachMagic TheatreWill Marchetti & Carla SpindtWhat does a marriage of fifty-five years sound like? Her middle of the night mumbles, snorts, and snores? His habit of opening a squeaky cabinet ever so slowly to hear each tick? Her end of day footstep that is “like a sack of flour dropped off a three-inch cliff”? His upset voice … [Read more...] about “Reel to Reel”
“The Eva Trilogy”
The Eva TrilogyBarbara HammondMagic TheatreJulia McNealWith ocean waves crashing somewhere in an unseen nearby and invisible sea gulls noisily swooping overhead, she sits on the stage’s lone brick doorstep. Forehead furrowed deep for someone only in midlife, cheeks alternating between long and pooched but always with cheerful dimples, and red hair giving away her Irish heritage … [Read more...] about “The Eva Trilogy”
“Grandeur”
GrandeurHan OngMagic TheatreCarl Lumbly“Time is the greatest writer of us all.Time has written over what I’ve written. Time has made me more moving than I set out to be and less potent than I was before.”Time’s march toward some inevitable but as-yet-undefined end for one man is an underlying tension point in Han Ong’s new play, Grandeur, now in its world premiere at Magic … [Read more...] about “Grandeur”
“The Baltimore Waltz”
The Baltimore WaltzPaula VogelMagic TheatrePatrick Alparone, Lauren English & Greg Jackson“I’m sorry ... There’s nothing we can do.” How many, countless times have those few words by a doctor sent individuals and their loved ones into a tailspin more uproarious than Dorothy’s tornado and on a journey that sometimes can be as strange, as scary, but somehow in the end … [Read more...] about “The Baltimore Waltz”
“Fool for Love”
Fool for LoveSam ShepardMagic TheatreJessi Campbell, Andrew Pastides & Patrick RussellClassic Shepard: It is all here. The dry, dusty, desert setting of the American Southwest. The unmade, iron-frame bed and yellow kitchen chair leftover from the ‘50s (only missing the usual, out-dated Frigidare in the corner). The bare electric light hanging from the … [Read more...] about “Fool for Love”
“Sojourners”
SojournersMfoniso UdofiaMagic TheatreKatherine Turner as AbasiamaIn the mid-to-late 1960s, the neighborhoods and streets of urban America were too often in flames with lives and property destroyed as African Americans protested white America’s prejudiced resistance to their voting and economic rights. An ocean and a world away, Nigerian Africans were at the same time … [Read more...] about “Sojourners”
“Dogeaters”
DogeatersJessica HagedornMagic TheatreThe hot, muggy breezes of Philippine jungles send trees crashing against the corrugated shacks along the stage wall while thumping loud beats of 1980s club music in Manila vibrate all around us. The uneasiness and threat of a storm is eased somewhat by the promise of a nightclub party. For the next two and a half hours, opulence … [Read more...] about “Dogeaters”
“Fred’s Diner”
Fred’s DinerPenelope SkinnerMagic TheatreOpening with a quick glance of a gruesome scene on Christmas Eve, Magic Theatre’s American premiere of Penelope Skinner’s Fred’s Diner retreats a few days earlier to travel a trail full of surprises, twists, and turns -- eventually to return to this scene in the end. The setting is Erik Flatmo’s deliciously authentic 1950’s style, … [Read more...] about “Fred’s Diner”
