Review of The Trojan Women

It couldn’t be better had it been planned: an opportunity to see productions of two plays by that old Greek, Euripides, in one weekend — The Trojan Women at UNC-Asheville and The Bacchae at Warren Wilson College. Better still: both are presented outdoors, just as the Greeks would have had it.

Review of The Importance of Being Earnest

The more shows I see Montford’s intrepid players undertake, the more fond of them I become. It’s community theater at its best, as far as I’m concerned. The vibe with the audience is supportive and enthusiastic, and you can’t help but feel that everyone, both onstage and off, is having a tremendously good time.

Vaudeville­! Burlesque! Cabaret!

Contemporary Asheville teems with fringe-y performers, with vaudeville, cabaret and burlesque troupes launching and performing frequently. The last two months have been particularly rich, with big shows by the Asheville Fringe Arts Festival, Bombs Away Cabaret, Bootstraps Burlesque, Seduction Sideshow, Runaway Circus & The Loose Cabooses and Asheville Vaudeville, among others. Will the scene explode […]

All aboard!

Sometimes you've just got to seize the means of production. "Vaudeville on Wheels" is one way to describe the increasingly popular LaZoom Comedy Tour, now entering its fourth season. That's not precisely what proprietor/performers Jim and Jennifer Lauzon had in mind when they started Asheville's alternative guided tour in 2006; then again, they didn't know […]

Review of Chipola at 35Below

Waylon Wood’s often lyrical dialogue and his understanding of, and compassion for, his characters compensate for structural deficiencies. It helps, too, that each role is perfectly cast and rendered, and that strong acting makes up for the less-believable touches.

Review of The Beautiful Johanna

It’s not the Dublin you’d find today, or even the Dublin of The Troubles. In David Brendan Hopes’ The Beautiful Johanna, Dublin is an apocalyptic nightmare, riddled by bomb blasts, machine gun bursts, and — perhaps most frightening of all — fire. Yet the subject of the play is neither horror nor hell. It’s love.