Email Author Paul Birchall

2009 Stories by Paul Birchall

• Absinthe, Opium, & Magic: 1920s Shanghai

  published December 10, 2009

  1920s Shanghai is the setting of Debbie McMahon’s wonderfully environmental tour de force of clowning, dancing and blood, which evokes, with... More >>

• Just 45 Minutes From Broadway

  published October 29, 2009

  Suffused with a near-Chekhovian mix of the wistful and the melancholy, playwright Henry Jaglom's world premiere comedy is a delight - an intimate... More >>

• Children of a Lesser God

  published October 1, 2009

  Most productions of Mark Medoff’s pioneering 1979 drama about the romance between a deaf student and her hearing-abled teacher are directed... More >>

• Art

  published October 1, 2009

  Playwright Yasmina Reza’s scintillating 1994 comedy debates a variety of ideas, and you find yourself agreeing with the last comment a... More >>

• The New Testament/Helter Skelter

  published August 27, 2009

  In Neil LaBute's two short, scathing one-acts, the overarching theme is the notion of extreme retaliation for wrongs committed. Both vignettes... More >>

• A Midsummer Night's Dream

  published July 16, 2009

  In a forest of fairies, skater boy Lysander (a nicely slacker-y Rett Nadol) runs off with his sweet fiancée, Hermia (Rachel Emmers, whose... More >>

• Monkey Madness

  published July 9, 2009

  In writer-director Daisuke Tsuji’s cracklingly clever tour de force, which takes place on a planet of apes from which Roddy McDowell is... More >>

• The Wasps

  published June 25, 2009

  With its amiably hammy seven-person ensemble of mostly veteran character actors who prance around caparisoned in codpieces with Slinkys attached,... More >>

• Groundlings, in the Study, With the Candlestick

  published April 16, 2009

  If you want a "clue" as to the subtle new direction L.A.'s premier venerable comedy troop has taken with this new show, you have only to take note... More >>

• Survived

  published April 9, 2009

  Playwright Tom Burmester's powerful drama, the second installment of his "war cycle" about the Iraqi War, mostly reigns in any implied disapproval... More >>

• Land of the Tigers

  published April 2, 2009

  Act 1 of the Burglars of Hamm's hilarious and thought provoking comedy Land of the Tigers outlandishly crosses Cats with Planet of the Apes. In a... More >>

• Taking Steps

  published February 5, 2009

  Alan Ayckbourn's 1979 sex comedy boasts a variety of riotously farcical situations, droll dialogue and hilarious, yet believable characters.... More >>

• Macbeth

  published January 29, 2009

  Director Jonathan Redding helms an intimate, moody production of Shakespeare's "Scottish Play," in which that unlucky Thane of Cawdor takes... More >>

• The Bird and Mr. Banks

  published January 22, 2009

  Alternately ghoulish and sweet, playwright Kevin Huff's darkly ironic tale is a pleasingly twisted mix of romance and Grand Guignol horror. After... More >>