Spirits to Enforce, directed by Jeff Storer and onstage now at Manbites Dog Theater, has kind of a crazy premise: a group of superheroes is living underwater and desperately trying to solicit donations so they can put on a production of The Tempest. For most of the ninety minute play, viewers watch as these superheroes… Continue reading “Spirits to Enforce” Is Hard to Follow, But Ultimately Worth a Watch
Tag: Jeff Storer
“Cock” Is a Handful for Manbites Dog, But Buy a Ticket, Because There’s Nothing Else Like It
Durham’s Manbites Dog Theater, which is known for its edgy — dare I say “controversial” — subject matter has brought us the regional premiere of Cock by British playwright Mike Bartlett. The title alone is enough to make the sensitive squirm, although after viewing the show, I hold to the title being pure shock value.… Continue reading “Cock” Is a Handful for Manbites Dog, But Buy a Ticket, Because There’s Nothing Else Like It
Enda Walsh’s “The New Electric Ballroom” Turns the Lonely Lives of Three Sisters Into a Dark Comedy
Manbites Dog Theater’s all-star presentation of “The New Electric Ballroom,” a 2008 tragicomedy by Dublin-born Irish playwright and screenwriter Enda Walsh puts sad and fronwy face on the loneliness and sexual frustration of three middle-aged spinster sisters sharing a cramped cottage in a small rural fishing village on the Irish coast. By day, they toil — and gossip — at the local cannery; but by night …
A. Rey Pamatmat’s “Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them” Teaches Important Lessons in Tolerance
The regional premiere of “Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them,” written by Filipino-American playwright A. Rey Pamatmat and jointly presented Dec. 1-17 by Manbites Dog Theater and the Duke University Department of Theater Studies, is an offbeat coming-of-age story about the plucky 12-year-old title character (played by Wanda Jin), her resourceful 16-year-old brother Kenny (Andy Chu), and Kenny’s somewhat geeky 16-year-old boyfriend Benji (Jacob W. Tobia).
“Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them” Is an Offbeat Coming-of-Age Comedy by A. Rey Pamatmat
On its website, Manbites Dog Theater writes, “All but abandoned in the American heartland, three kids struggle to create a makeshift family. And when the outside world barges in, the only things that can protect them are love, loyalty, and marksmanship.”