12
Sep
2016
Spoiler alert: Deathtrap, now running at the the Playcrafters Barn Theatre, is awesome. In fact, since I started reviewing a little less than a year ago, this was certainly the most enjoyable night of theatre I've yet had.
Taking The Addams Family as a sign, I'm excited about the District Theatre's future in downtown Rock Island's former Argus building, and while there are still a few growing pains to overcome, the company is clearly off to a good start.
New Ground Theatre's 2015 Playwrights Festival: One-Acts was, for me, a mixture of "Ha ha ha!" and "What the hell?!" I either laughed heartily during the five debuting works or sat confused as to the points their playwrights tried to make.
The District Theatre's Doubt may be the most exceptionally performed, strongly directed production I've yet seen in the Quad Cities. Saturday night's flawless performance left me in awe, particularly for the production's perfect casting, and for how well director James Fairchild highlights playwright John Patrick Shanley's humor.
Over the years, Davenport's New Ground Theatre has prided itself on the presentation of new works by emerging authors. But this year, even Artistic Director Chris Jansen is shocked to find the company not only producing eight new works in a season, but eight new works - the majority of them by local authors - over a two-night span.
Judging by Friday's performance of The 39 Steps at the Playcrafters Barn Theatre, it's apparent that director Tom Morrow likes sight gags and British humor. He handles playwright Patrick Barlow's comically melodramatic take on the 1915 spy thriller - and Alfred Hitchcock's 1935 film - with care, avoiding over-the-top staging but highlighting the humor in ways that elicit a lot of laughs. (Whereas overselling the gags would likely elicit groans.)
On Thursday, the District Theatre debuted a most admirable, impressive production of Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman, a play boasting numerous surprises both major and minor. Yet if the reactions of a few of the evening's audience members are to be trusted, it might be necessary to spoil a few right off the bat.
New Ground Theatre's God of Carnage is one of the funniest shows, if not the funniest, I've seen on a Quad Cities stage so far this year. Not only is the script by playwright Yasmina Reza sharp, surprising, and witty, but director Derek Bertelsen's handling of the pacing and his cast's character choices had me laughing embarrassingly loudly at Thursday's performance. Even two days later, I find myself mentally inserting quotable dialogue from the play into conversations (though I'd rather not quote any of it here, as most of the best lines involve the "F" word).
When the cast for the Harrison Hilltop Theatre's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street was revealed several weeks ago, I'll admit I was concerned. While I'd previously admired the work of most of the actors, I wasn't sure they were up to the tasks of the roles they'd been awarded - chiefly Tom Walljasper, cast as the titular barber. While Walljasper excels at comedic roles, I worried that, with his smirking, tongue-in-cheek style of delivery, he wouldn't be able to carry the dramatic weight of Stephen Sondheim's killer character. But after seeing Thursday's opening-night performance, I'm pleased to admit that I was wrong. Very wrong; Walljasper's ability to handle the role was apparent with the first lyric he sang, which carried with it a dark, sinister, intense appeal.
