by Michael GrossbergAll that the black women want to do is eat at an Atlanta department-store restaurant.
But the year is 1964, the risks are real and the outcome is uncertain as they strive to test a Supreme Court decision upholding the recently passed Civil Rights Act in “Waiting to Be Invited.” PAST Productions Columbus and Red Herring Productions are co-producing the Columbus premiere of S.M. Shephard-Massat’s civil rights drama, which opens Friday at the Franklinton Playhouse.
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by Sheldon GleisserSaw Red Herring Theater's production of "Grounded" last night.
"Grounded" is a one-woman show touching on themes of family, career, and identity. Looming over all of that is the question of whether our technology will serve us or if it will be the other way around. Carolyn Demanelis is mesmerizing in the role of the unnamed female fighter pilot first introduced to us speaking rapturously of flying her jet 'into the Blue.' Her plane is a machine she loves passionately even as she bombs targets back into the desert sands. by Richard SanfordRed Herring continues their ambitious season with the world premiere of Creighton James’ dark comedy Dirt in a visceral, frenetic mounting directed by Amanda Phillips.
Dirt recasts Sam Shepard’s working-class surrealism as a cartoonish farce. Jimmy (Benjamin Turner) returns to his hometown in the heart of coal country Pennsylvania for the first time in seven years. He and his brother Rusty (Samuel Patridge), who stayed and still works in the mine, are on a mission to exhume the remains of their father before the bulldozers of eminent domain churn up all that ground. by Sheldon GleisserPerhaps the safest way to review Red Herring's production of "Dirt," written by Creighton James and directed by Amanda Phillips, is to say that it's about two brothers intent on digging up the body of their dead father.
No, it's NOT an adaptation of a Stephen King story! 7 years ago, brothers Rusty (Samuel Patridge) and Jimmy (Benjamin Turner) carried out a do-it-yourself euthanasia on their aged to-the-point-of-pain pater familias. With a highway soon coming right through their former property, the boys would just as soon dispose of the bones themselves in order to avoid awkward questions. by Sheldon GleisserThomas Jefferson, Leo Tolstoy, and Charles Dickens walking into a room in the Afterlife sounds like the start of a joke. And there are laughs aplenty in the play "Discord," which I saw last night at Red Herring Theater.
Yet in spite of "Discord's" premise, and its laughs, I can't exactly call it a comedy. In fact, I don't want to say much more, as the individual theater goer really should discover the play's combination of humor and poignancy for themselves. |