It might have worked. Mad Cat Theatre Company’s new production of Sam Shepard’s Action, a one-act play passing for a full evening of theater, has a lot going on: screaming and chair-throwing, fish-filleting onstage, what looks like a Pollo Tropical chicken passing for a Christmas meal, lots of drooly finger-licking,…
THU 17 Picture yourself strolling alongside a burbling stream that meanders through thickets of lush tropical foliage. Birds twitter and children laugh as they chase one another over a rustic-looking wooden bridge. Butterflies flutter past the waterfall as they feed on the nectar from brightly colored exotic flowers. In the…
With plays, as with people, old does not necessarily mean stale. Such is decidedly the case with The Constant Wife, now at the Coconut Grove Playhouse. This drawing-room comedy from 1926 comes across with a lot more bite than most of the trendy but empty fare that’s dragged across South…
Animal Xing: Joshua Levine’s viscerally mutated animal sculptures are fiercely contemporary and relevant, dynamic figures resulting (in concept) from the conflation of biology and technology. Starting with taxidermic models of squirrels and beavers, Levine refashions the creatures by elongating their limbs with steel, urethane foam, acrylics, and epoxy resin. He…
It’s hard to know what to expect from Wayne Wang. The Hong Kong-raised director has made one gorgeous mood movie (Chinese Box) and two intelligent literary adaptations (Smoke and Anywhere But Here); he was also responsible, in his early days, for the overwrought sobfest Joy Luck Club. Then, in 2002,…
It takes no time at all to get into the swing of the M Ensemble’s latest production, a revival of Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill. To one side of a small stage swathed in red velvet, a trio of jazz veterans in porkpie hats are laying down some…
Clarence Darrow’s Last Trial: It’s a trial all right. Shirley Lauro’s new play takes a long time to bring to life the minor last chapter of a major life in law. There is certainly nothing wrong with Rafael de Acha’s production or with his cast, which boasts entertaining performances by…
Don’t be afraid. Really, there’s nothing to worry about. Take a moment to breathe, alone. Only the individual can discover the true human spirit. Out of fear, most people shield themselves by hiding amid their communities, something Herman Hesse described as “false communion.” A state of “genuine communion,” Hesse might…
Animal Xing: Joshua Levine’s viscerally mutated animal sculptures are fiercely contemporary and relevant, dynamic figures resulting (in concept) from the conflation of biology and technology. Starting with taxidermic models of squirrels and beavers, Levine refashions the creatures by elongating their limbs with steel, urethane foam, acrylics, and epoxy resin. He…
When we first see Tony Fingleton, the plucky Australian hero of Swimming Upstream, he’s a cute little guy getting cuffed around by his vile big brother, Harold Jr. That’s just the beginning of a long ordeal. For the next two hours of screen time, Tony (played as a teenager by…
Miami’s annual Mardi Gras celebration is but a babe in the woods. Compared to Fat Tuesday in New Orleans, we have plenty of growing to do before our three-year-old celebration becomes the “main attraction for Mardi Gras/Carnival festivities internationally,” as Miami’s official mission statement idealistically proclaims. No matter, we’re going…
Art you can relate to FRI 2/11 For those of us who couldn’t afford to take out a second mortgage to purchase a piece of Art Basel greatness, there is hope for that still-barren living room wall. In its 31st year, the Miami Beach Festival of the Arts promises paintings,…
Bump, set, and don’t break a nail SAT 2/12 A bevy of scantily clad international models will descend upon the sands of South Beach with the force and speed of a power spike, and they’re just aching to crush some balls. An estimated 15,000 voyeurs are expected to stare, ogle,…
Miami City Ballet serves four FRI 2/11 You don’t have to know a damn thing about ballet to appreciate the immense athletic and artistic abilities that go into each performance, and the Miami City Ballet’s “Program III” will not disappoint hard-core dance fanatics. This program features the company premieres of…
One should expect little from the man who has directed an Olsen Twins movie (It Takes Two, the one with Steve Guttenberg, no less), Matthew Perry’s first Friends-to-film entry (Fools Rush In, its title an apparent nod to audiences who went to see it), and Sweet Home Alabama, one of…
The red and flowery holiday about love is upon us, and whether you’re the type who passes out homemade construction paper tokens of affection or someone who prefers to stay in bed watching the Westminster Kennel Club’s annual dog show to avoid dodging flower delivery vans all day, you should…
WED 2/16 Which 1971 flick became a blaxploitation classic? If you guessed Shaft, you damn right. Professor Geoffrey Philip will screen, then discuss, this groundbreaking film at 5:40 p.m. in the Miami Dade College North Campus MJ Raylor Lounge, room 4207, 11380 NW 27th Ave., Miami. Call 305-237-8418. — Patrice…
THU 10 Most art galleries are cramped spaces where visitors never stray far from the walls. At Labyrinth: the backward path, visitors will encounter the works of eight artists while navigating the twists and turns of a maze 60 feet long, 60 feet wide, and 7 feet high. A different…
What’s going on at Florida Stage? After establishing a reputation for presenting provocative, substantial new plays, the award-winning Manalapan company has recently swerved toward a series of pleasant but dramatically insipid works. The latest in this troubling trend is Hanging Fire, a low-wattage comedy whose title phrase refers to a…
You know there’s trouble brewing when you get this bit of conversation between husband and wife: “How was your day?” “I wish you wouldn’t talk to me like that.” This snippy exchange in The Retreat from Moscow acts as prologue to the pathetic end of Edward and Alice’s marriage, a…
Clarence Darrow’s Last Trial: It’s a trial all right. Shirley Lauro’s new play takes a long time to bring to life the minor last chapter of a major life in law. There is certainly nothing wrong with Rafael de Acha’s production or with his cast, which boasts entertaining performances by…
The chair figured as a central allegory in Plato’s legendary Theory of Forms. Marcel Proust once observed there was something unique about this piece of furniture that elicited people’s temperament. In Artificial Paradises, French poet Charles Baudelaire equated a chair’s form to that of a seductive woman. Finnish poet Bo…
