You have to do your funny bone a favor and go see this production! For the ninth year, Mike Collins and his cast of entertainers truly bring it! Charlotte Squawks - Ninesense is nothing short of a live roasting of the area's nonsensical, head-scratching, unbelievably stupid mishaps over the last year. The script does manage to poke major fun at a few national headlines and create parodies in their honor, such as, "The Congress Song" (parody of Bruno Mars' "The Lazy Song"), "Bye, Bye, Hostess Cupcakes and Pies" (parody of "American Pie") and "This Cruise Could Be Better" (parody of "Cruisin' Together") which magnifies the recent and awful Carnival Cruiseline disasters that left hundreds of passengers stranded for days, forced to poop in plastic sandwich baggies and consume empty hot dog buns for dinner.
The cast magnificently delivered their skits and easily pulled gut-busting laughter from the audience throughout the evening. There was never a dull moment. Although there was a serious and heart-felt skit that paid tribute to those affected by the recent Boston bombing; but even that ended with comically nailing the living terrorist to the deck by mentioning his attempted escape on a boat that wasn't at sea. Just perfect.
My favorites by far were "Circle of Bikes" (parody of The Lion King's "Circle of Life") and "Randolph Road" (parody of John Denver's "Country Roads"). "Circle of Bikes", I'm certain, will ruffle the feathers of many Charlotteans since biking has become a favorite sport within the city, however, I personally laughed so hard that I couldn't see through my tears or catch my breath. Since I'm a new mother, I must give an honorable mention to "Kid Drop" (parody of Macklemore's "Thrift Shop"). Who knew Johanna Jowett, a beautiful blonde, could challenge the rap skills and dance moves of any of today's 21 year old hip hop artists?
Ninesense even pulled out the stops with sharing their take on Mooresville's beloved Randy Marion female duo as well as the creepy Mr. Jenkins of Morris Jenkins Heating and Cooling and his simple-minded technician, Bobby. Two more tear-jerking (from laughing) performances that locals must see.
Songbird cast members, Carmen Shultz and Megan Medkiff, both have the voice of angels, and worked for every laugh and kudo they received. The others certainly showed what they were made of while taking jabs at Mayor Foxx's obsession with the Gold Line Streetcar project to mulling over a new species that could represent Charlotte's flailing basketball team, called The Horncats (a combination of the Hornets and the Bobcats).
There are times when I missed a trick on stage while tuning in to screens placed above and beside the stage, but overall, I could get the gist of each parody.
There are way too many funnies to mention, but not too many to see. As Mike Collins stresses, the show is an equal opportunity offender, so whoever you are, whatever you do, and wherever you live (in the area) you may be mad, sad, and glad you went...possibly in that order. Review by Dawn Cauthen Thornton
Dawn Cauthen Thornton is a freelance writer in the Charlotte area currently working on a screenplay, a novel, and many freelance articles. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing with a concentration in Writing for Stage and Screen from Queens University of Charlotte. Her work has appeared in Uptown Magazine. Dawn enjoys reviewing theater productions, movies, and loves most things artistic.
People who like their plays totally comprehensible and played straight up will not get this production. It probably would be best described as avant-garde. Why? The play challenges the audience through symbols to think for themselves. It won't be easy; you have to look deeper. What are the playwrights trying to say? That is something to keep in mind when seeing any theatrical piece. This is a multi-media production, so the art, set design, costumes, constant video, and music all work together to create an atmosphere that is uncomfortable, unsettling, nightmarish. It also has unexpected, intentional humor.
Since Mary Shelley wrote the book almost two hundred years ago it has become embedded in our pop culture consciousness. It has been adapted into movies as different as the early Boris Karloff horror version, the comedy horror of Young Frankenstein, even an animated movie dog named Frankenweenie, as well as plays and other adaptations of all sorts.
This particular version has three actors playing multiple roles: S. Wilson Lee who mainly plays Victor Frankenstein, Katie Bearden who plays childhood friend Elizabeth among others, and Chris O'Neill who directs and plays the Creature and Henry, another childhood friend. Masks are used to differentiate several of the characters. The roles are demanding and the actors give it their all as they have multiple changes in character, sometimes turning on a dime, during the one-act.
As for this play, why have the characters portrayed lasted and intrigued us for hundreds of years? We seek control over the one thing we fear and dread the most—death. When, as a child, Victor's mother dies he is unable to accept the loss. He vows to "create" life so there will be no need of "mother" to give birth, and no death, so there will be no loss. This twisted obsession leads to the Creature. Yet, almost immediately Victor rejects and abandons him, leaving the Creature to wander aimlessly in his grotesqueness in a society that worships beauty, and "winners." Here is where we have the barbs, the humor, thrown at so-called normal people and what odd aspects of society that garner their attention, "Can you hear me now?" The Creature tries to imitate those around him, to fit in, but is soundly rejected. He asks Victor repeatedly what his name is, like a son begging a father for acknowledgment, but never gets an answer. His pain from rejection turns to anger and then violence, just as may happen with real life criminals.
Technical aspects of the show are well-done, particularly the art design by Jonathan Prichard. An eerie moon suspends above the action glowing some nights and not others. The open wood frame laboratory setting with drop cloth backing and old dolls and strings of lights is appropriately creepy. Lighting by Adam York supports the production. The videos by David Hemsley projected on the opposite side of the stage give the audience many black and white views of scenes that support the action. The Clamor Sound Collective lends atmosphere not only through the original music, but sounds that leave the audience disturbed without being intrusive.
As we enter brave new worlds of medical "miracles" with transplants, organ creation, once deadly diseases now eliminated or survivable, the possibility of future generations living well past 100 years old, the story of Victor Frankenstein remains a cautionary one. Create with great care, because once life is created, but that life is unsatisfactory, what do you do? In Victor's case, by trying to create life, he destroyed everyone he loved. Review by Ann Marie Oliva
Ann Marie Oliva is a playwright, fiction, and non-fiction writer, and reviewer. She is the theatre/film editor of ARTS à la Mode and a member of the Dramatists Guild of America.
The crowds keep growing every year at the Charlotte Shakespeare Festival on The Green Uptown as Charlotteans take pleasure in the unique outdoor performing experience. Extended families show up and bring a feast to picnic on before the show along with groups and couples who may buy pizza and drinks from nearby stores. Outdoor performances of Shakespeare are not unusual elsewhere, notably in New York and London, but now the plays are performed around the world in summer time, and we are fortunate to be one of the newer locations. The shows are always well done, and you can't beat the price (Free), but they will gladly take contributions to help defray expenses.
Having seen The Taming of the Shrew any number of times, I have to say this is one of the most likable, given the nature of the play itself. Director Christian Casper has emphasized the farcical elements of the play asking the actors for broad performances, and almost slapstick-like humor. They accommodate him. It appears some of the play has been trimmed, and a western theme is used to emphasize that this is a fun production—not to be taken too seriously. I don't believe I've heard Shakespeare recited with a Western drawl before. Countless pop culture references are made, mostly in the music with instrumental underscores of songs like "Fistful of Dollars," "Ring of Fire," "Ghost Riders in the Sky," "Bonanza," and even a quick reference to the ubiquitous recent "Call Me Maybe."
The entire cast is first rate. It's all good energy entertainment. J.R. Aducci as Petruchio is especially appealing as the dominating suitor who is clearly after the large dowry. Kate will just be another acquisition. He plays him as a bit of an eccentric jerk in this production so we don't find him as obnoxious and unlikable as he could be. Meghan Lowther has to play Kate straight or we wouldn't understand why the men, including her father (Jonathan Ray) are afraid of her and resent her. The two actors have a good rapport and play off each other quite well, indicating to the audience that the attraction between the two is there all along.
The technical aspects of the production are handled well for an outdoor performance since that presents its own special challenges. Although, sometimes the actors voices, on the high end of the register, sound harsh and screechy. There's no need to raise the voice to that level when one is wearing a mic. Notable is the lighting by Trista Bremer, and costumes by Luci Wilson.
This is an early Shakespeare comedy written, it is estimated, between 1590-94 when he was in his mid to late 20s, though he had been married since 18 to Anne Hathaway, eight years older, and had three children. He left them behind to make his name in London. It's impossible to say if that uneasy union caused him to write from a misogynistic viewpoint, but it is well known that many women don't look on this play with any affection, including me. I still cringe when I hear those lines:
Of course, one has to acknowledge the times were different over 400 years ago when women were actually little more than chattel. It is believed Shakespeare took the story of the "shrew" from an old folktale. Scholars tell us that he borrowed most of his plots from previous writers: ancient Greeks, Latins, military historians, and like this story, from the oral tradition of folktales. It is difficult to reconcile that only a few years later he wrote Romeo and Juliet. But maybe, being away from his wife, he fell in love for real and saw women in another light? Or maybe The Taming of the Shrew is meant to be irony, a parody? Though, that is tough to justify. We'll never know, but there's far too much merriment at Kate's expense in her "taming" for many women.
All that said, I would recommend this show. It may bring up good points of discussion with the next generation about the right way to treat women. Review by Ann Marie Oliva
Ann Marie Oliva is a playwright, fiction, and non-fiction writer, and reviewer. She is the theatre/film editor of ARTS à la Mode and a member of the Dramatists Guild of America.
A new farce about old issues can still be delightful onstage—especially with current ties to religious anxieties. In this outrageous 2010 comedy of manners, a crumbling convent in 1966 Pittsburgh erupts with four habit-wearing women on personal and epic quests. Nun-to-be Agnes (Caroline Bower) finds holy visions in a schoolboy's underwear, ecstatic joy in singing about martyrs' pains, and the miraculous power to heal through faith, yet also the dangers of religious egomania in competition with other believers. Sister Acacius (Barbi VanShaick) discovers that her passion for God and for order in the school as its wrestling coach might also relate to secret knowledge and diverse desires under her religious habit. Mother Superior (Ashby Blakely) likewise explores her repressed longings for a lost lover and orphaned family members, while trying, with Sister Acacius, to raise money to rebuild St. Veronica's Convent and School. But Sister Walburg (Catherine Smith), visiting with riding crop in hand from the "mother house" in Berlin, has different designs for St. V's, involving Da Vinci Code-like plot twists.
All four actors are excellent in these roles, with Bower showing a miraculous range of change, VanShaick giving hilarious gestures regarding her repressed desires, Blakely portraying noble fortitude in gender and death crossing ways, and Smith twisting the play into multiple fiction and reality flips. Robert Lee Simmons adds a cocky film-noir counterweight as the former newspaper reporter and current Hollywood story scout, Jeremy, plus the seedy Brother Venerius, meeting in the convent crypt with Sister Walburg for her insidious subplot. Nicia Carla offers caricatured extremes, too, as the rich Jewish atheist, Mrs. Levinson, preaching on the cruelties of Mother Nature, and as the troubled boy, Timothy, who cannot swing a bat but confesses his gay infatuations, which should be locked up in an imaginary box and forgotten, according to Mother Superior (who tries to do the same with her childhood traumas in the orphanage).
Many of parts of this play are riotously funny and yet revealing—with surprising puns, crazy sight gags, and insightfully poignant moments. The costumes, designed by Carrie Cranford, begin with simple habits yet eventually transport the characters in various delightful directions. The lighting design by Hallie Gray also transforms faces at key, mortal and immortal points. The set by Chip Decker, with artwork by Stan Peal, is even more fantastic: sinfully stained windows, convent brick walls, tile floors, and wooden doors turn into many more perverse locations, extending contexts and meanings to the play’s parodies.
If you were raised Catholic in the 1960s, like me, this farce may hit close to home. Even so, it is a thoroughly enjoyable—though potentially offensive—romp through the past foibles of good-hearted and yet religiously misguided female clergy. The ties to a Bible Belt community here in Charlotte are left to the audience's imagination as well, perhaps not to be locked up and forgotten. Review by Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato is Professor of Theatre at UNC Charlotte and author of Ghosts of Theatre and Cinema in the Brain, Theatres of Human Sacrifice, and Inner Theatres of Good and Evil. His plays have been published by Aran Press and his screenplays, produced as short films, have won New York Film Festival and Minnesota Community Television awards.