Bill Raden

Peter Van Norden

Revival of Pinter's Rarely Produced Government Satire Fails to Find Its Political Teeth

While the current political and global situation might be reason enough to cheer any Hothouse revival, the production being mounted by Antaeus Theatre Company in Glendale seems to have misplaced some of the play’s more pointed political incisors. Which is not to say that that director Nike Doukas’ otherwise glossy staging doesn’t deliver its share of charms....
Aliyah Conley and Trevor H. Olsen star in Sharon Yablon's Hello Stranger; Credit: Darrett Sanders

Day of the Dead in the Inland Empire Comes to Life as a Fever Dream

Though it would be a stretch to call Hello Stranger a Halloween horror, Sharon Yablon’s poetically pitched homecoming drama looks an awful lot like a ripping haunted house yarn. It features restive spirits tied to the unsavory history of a proverbial old dark house; it is driven by the uncanny......
Julie Dretzin and Maya Bowman have a fraught mother-daughter relationship in Mary Laws' wickedly funny Yaju.; Credit: Darrett Sanders

Five Female Playwrights Explore Being a Woman in the Time of Trump

It takes a long memory to recall a time when Los Angeles gave the short play its due respect. Decades of skyrocketing rents, plunging government arts support and the recent loss of Actor Equity's fabled 99-Seat Plan, which made large-cast shows affordable for L.A.’s intimate stages, have transformed a once......