Reviews ::
True West
Maggie's Riff
A Streetcar Named Desire
Billy the Kid
"Is it possible this Sam Shepard piece deserves the label of "theatrical warhorse?" Considered gritty and cutting edge at the time of its 1980 premiere, this tale of two brothers, complete opposites, who collide head-on, seems somewhat pedestrian in this day and age. But, judging by this production, it's obvious that given the right mix of artistic temperament and vision, new and exciting inroads can be discovered even in the most familiar of material.
Director Wendy Obstler demonstrates a steady hand with Shepard's slowly simmering story. Where others might rush the play's emotional arc, Obstler affords her cast the time and luxury to build the necessary tension. Having cast Tiger Reel and Andre Carriere as her leads certainly makes Obstler's work that much easier. Reel plays Austin, a semi-successful screenwriter struggling to finish a romantic period piece. Holed up in his mother's Southern California home while she's traveling in Alaska, he finds his work and sanity slowly sapped by the presence of his slacker brother, Lee. Although the teeth-discoloring makeup he uses is a bit heavy for this small venue, Carriere, sinewy and tattooed, embodies this unpredictable familial menace with ease. Is Lee teetering on the edge of insanity, or is his short fuse a time-tested method of psychologically outfoxing everyone around him? Those moments of silence when we watch the wheels spinning in Carriere's head make Reel's discomfort so grippingly palpable.
An often-cartoonish supporting role, that of Hollywood producer Saul Kimmer, is crafted beautifully here by Lance Beckoff. Never over-the-top, Beckoff knows just when to let the gravity of the brothers' self-destructive personalities play into his character's objectives. His scenes successfully build this soon-to-be-crashing house of cards rather than merely serving as a comic subplot. Caryl West's final-scene appearance as the boys' mom, though providing insight into this dysfunctional family, seems a bit too sane as she witnesses the physical brutality her progeny inflict on each other."
- Backstage West***
"Have you ever wanted to kill your brother? Blood may be thicker than water but it isn’t thicker than alcohol, or stronger than rage.
Doghouse Theatre & Action! Theatre Company present a flawlessly detailed rendition of Sam Shepard’s “True West” at the Lyric-Hyperion Theatre in Los Feliz.
It’s an age-old case of nature vs. nurture, and “my ego is bigger than yours,” as the two main characters, brothers Austin and Lee, battle out their dualities in order to be taken seriously. Director Wendy Obstler misses no details, and Act 2 is especially fulfilling from the very top.
The house opens, and the audience is invited into a sweet suburban home where Austin, a successful Hollywood screenwriter (Tiger Reel) of Ally McBeal and Surviving Paradise, is sitting at the dining room table, sternly focused on writing his next screenplay. Reel’s portrayal of Austin is spot-on, filled with brilliant subtleties. He quite believably transforms his sense of awareness to a place where anything becomes possible… even murder.
Lee (Andre Carriere) misses no details of his rugged, aggravated character’s life from his disenchanted speech down to his socks that have disintegrated 70%, and his teeth, which are in similar condition.
Saul Kimmer does a very entertaining agent Lance Beckoff, and Caryl West plays well the dysfunctional mother who obviously got the ball rolling.
The piece drifts through the emotionality of double natures, and takes you on a very raw ride of what it’s like to stand-up for yourself. I left with this question in mind: Who am I, what do I want and how am I going to get it?"
- Tolucan Times-------------------------------------------------------------------
"Directed by Andre Carriere, Jon Lipsky's play with music is fascinating... terrific work from the artists involved: Sax man Khalif Bobatoon is a strong, sexy presence with top-notch musical chops; Wendy Obstler is delightful and surprising as straight-shooter Maggie; and powerhouse Jamil Chokachi brings every scene to life as the quirkey sidekick Mouse. As Kerouac, Roy Samuelson does a fine job..."
- Backstage West
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"If you attend this Doghouse Theatre production, you'll find yourself traveling to a house in the heart of the University of Texas area. Frat houses and apartments abound. The "box office" is a table out front. Libations are provided in a metal tub brimming with ice, admission is "pay-what-you-wish," and the program is a single sheet photocopy with bare-bones information. The "stage" is the back yard, surrounded and dominated by the overhanging branches of trees and set with rudimentary furniture, the rear façade of the house, with its closed-in porch, back door, and single window, being used as part of the playing space. The night I attended, partyers could be heard from all directions. An air conditioner next door shut on and off throughout the performance, a breeze that sometimes became a wind rustled and whipped the trees, and a brown tabby kitten wandered in and out among spectators and actors. Could there be a setting more appropriate for what many consider to be the greatest American play ever written? After all, this Tennessee Williams opus, about the tarnished Southern flower Blanche Dubois, her love-struck sister Stella, Stella's brute husband Stanley, and the lonely lug Mitch, is set in the French Quarter of New Orleans.
In case it isn't obvious, I love the idea of Doghouse Theatre. I felt welcome from the moment I managed to wend and duck my way down the shrub-crowded sidewalk, the sounds of a University Friday Night bombarding me from all sides. Yes, I love the idea ...
Director Andre Carriere approaches Williams' script as if it is a blank canvas on which he can paint whatever he chooses. In several scenes, poker is played by a group of men, but instead of cards and chips the actors use a bowl of pennies, tossing or flicking them into the bowl. Blanche's trunk, filled with her belongings, is a tiny, pyramid shaped container filled with still tinier, circular pieces of paper. The booze, on the other hand, is quite representative and includes some conspicuous Pabst Blue Ribbon... Often, Carriere would have most of the actors appear on the stage, whether their characters appeared in a scene or not... Carriere seemed to use these two as representatives of male and female sexuality, constantly draped all over each other and Blanche. Often, they would say other characters' lines, most particularly Blanche's, either alone or in unison...
Some of the performers were engaging, most particularly Nathan Urban as Mitch, who I consistently heard and understood, and David Young as Stanley, who had an appropriate animal hunch and bull-headed demeanor, but these were exceptions. Yes, I loved a lot of it, but what I loved, unfortunately, had nothing to do with the marvelous play Tennessee Williams penned."
- The Austin Chronicle
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"There ain't nothin' like sippin' a beer and watching a poetic description of a man's veins being dragged out of his neck by a chicken, while the man's still alive, no less! "His dyin' words were, 'Git away from me, ya goddamn chicken!'" The Collected Works of Billy the Kid is rife with such anecdotes of men gut-shot and bleeding to death or surviving the hell of the desert drinking their own piss or kicking back and dancing with a few local ladies after a good long drink or engaging in an almost childlike game of hide-and-go-seek where being found surely puts a noose around one's neck. Novelist Michael Ondaatje may be better known for his novel-turned-movie The English Patient, but his stories of outlaw Billy the Kid and sheriff Pat Garrett are well worth a look in a stage production that combines poetry, gore, historical pastiche, wit, and pathos.
The Doghouse Theatre's production of Ondaatje's work makes the most of both the collage-like writing and the intimate outdoor theatre that houses the production (The show is being performed in the director's back yard in West Campus.). Through the blooming oleander, a three-piece combo (usually guitar, cello, and upright bass, with occasional trumpet or percussion) underscores the work of an ensemble of six who, chorus-like, tell the stories of Kid, Garrett, and the people who rode in and out of their lives. Like the dusk settling into the night, specific roles settle on individuals: Chris Sykes plays Billy the Kid, often open-mouthed and slouched, taking it all in with a rather childlike interest. Barton Marks plays Pat Garrett, a smiling character, ever watchful and waiting. Wendy Goodwin, as Miz Angela D., a courtly courtesan, and Traci Laird, as Sallie Chisum, friend to both leading men, bring to their roles a sense that even in telling their stories, they know more than they're letting on, adding to that aura of mystery that surrounds the most infamous gunslinger. Paul Keith and Sara Patterson round out the sextet and while both offer some interesting work, there is something noticeably modern about them and their delivery that at times separates their characters from the play's eerie historical sensibility.
Director Andre Carriere manages to keep things hugely entertaining with little more than a stone patio, the band, and a handful of props. He has great material with which to work, yet even so he has translated an otherworldliness to his own stage-bound storytelling, and he has his ensemble, musicians, and all connecting in ways that transcend simple play production. It's easy to forget that you're sitting in his back yard, the way the characters spring to life with poetry of words and movement.
In some places, the technical abilities of the actors makes it abundantly clear that you are indeed in a back yard watching dedicated but variously experienced performers in action. But not so often that it spoils the show. As the breeze moves the trees and the band plays a secretive waltz, you are transported to dark wooden houses on the plains where myth and mystery, and Ondaatje's poetry, bring Billy the Kid to life."
-The Austin Chronicle
