Home » Archive by Tags

Articles tagged with: A.C. Smith

‘A Moon for the Misbegotten’ at Writers: Grasping for some truth beneath a pall of lies

Feb 23, 2018 – 9:52 am
Feature 1

Review: Brawny Phil Hogan and his imposing, hard-as-nails daughter Josie are poor tenant farmers in 1920s Connecticut. James Tyrone Jr., who owns the farm, is a wealthy playboy who’s always had a soft spot for Josie – and for booze and, by loud proclamation, the tarts on Broadway. The daily bread of them all, these desperate occupants of Eugene O’Neill’s “A Moon for the Misbegotten,” is mendacity. They lie to each other and they lie to themselves, until they each find some part of redemption in some measure of truth. Their rough progress toward that grail is a magical thing to witness at Writers Theatre. ★★★★

‘East Texas Hot Links’ at Writers: A small café, some laughs, some fear; and then some blood

Nov 7, 2016 – 5:51 pm
feature-2

Review: Eugene Lee’s lyrical tragedy “East Texas Hotlinks” is an exquisite song of betrayal, an ironic ballad of the enemy within. And it is pitch perfect in a fluent, wryly comedic and quite astonishing production directed by Ron OJ Parson at Writers Theatre. The grace and truth of August Wilson’s poetic style permeate the characters as well as the language of Lee’s 1991 play, a reflection of this playwright-actor’s long association with the Wilson canon. ★★★★★

Role Playing: A.C. Smith is ready undertaker, lord of diner world in ‘Two Trains Running’

Apr 9, 2015 – 10:04 pm
sub feature

Interview: A.C. Smith, a big-framed actor formidably attired in black as a wealthy undertaker, is ensconced Buddha-like at the corner table of a diner in the Goodman Theatre production of August Wilson’s “Two Trains Running.” Simply learning how to sit there, and figuring out what to do with his unnaturally gloved hands, says Smith, was a daunting new wrinkle even for a savvy veteran of Wilson’s plays.

‘Two Trains Running’ at Goodman: As tumult besets their world, diner denizens grasp at life

Mar 20, 2015 – 12:09 am
Holloway (Alfred H. Wilson) brings a philosophical calm to the diner run by Memphis (Terry Bellamy). (Liz Lauren)

Review: We need a new word to describe the quality that makes every August Wilson play a red-letter event of any theater season. This single new descriptor would meld the two features that Wilson always mixes with such ineffable ease: charm and poignancy. They are the stuff of “Two Trains Running” at the Goodman Theatre, a beguiling portrait of the human condition as an uphill battle – and the difference a leap of faith can make. ★★★★★

Goodman’s ‘Christmas Carol’ brings Yuletide treasure in magical form of Yando’s Scrooge

Dec 12, 2013 – 11:51 pm
Old Ebenezer Scrooge (Larry Yando, left) observes his younger self (Robert Hope) in a happy moment with Belle (Atra Asdou). (Liz Lauren)

Review: The sixth time is a charm for Larry Yando as that grasping, covetous old sinner Ebenezer Scrooge in the Goodman Theatre production of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” Or I should say, a charm again — just like Yando’s previous five outings in the part. His irascible but salvageable and very funny misanthrope remains a Scrooge for the young in heart and imagination. ★★★★

‘The Misanthrope’ at Court: Rants that rhyme keep laughs coming in crisp, modern Molière

May 30, 2013 – 5:16 pm
Erik Hellman with Grace Gealey in The Misanthrope at Court Theatre credit Michael Brosilow

Review: When Molière’s satiric play “The Misanthrope” first came to the stage in 1666, at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris, its mockery of society as duplicitous, self-aggrandizing and narcissistic must have had audiences teary-eyed with laughter. Just so is Court Theatre’s deliciously decadent new production LOL stuff. Indeed, director Charles Newell’s imaginative, sharply executed enterprise is simply not to be missed. ★★★★

Packed with vivid characters and hard truths, Court’s memorable ‘Jitney’ is worth the fare

Sep 24, 2012 – 1:35 pm
Allen Wilson as Fielding Allen Bilmore as Turnbo AC Smith as Becker and Cedric Young as Doub in August Wilson's Jitney Court Theatre 2012 credit Michael Brosilow

Review: ★★★★★

‘My Kind of Town’ reconstructs police torture scandal as a complicated drama of real life

May 25, 2012 – 5:56 pm
My Kind of Town by John Conroy at TimeLine Theatre 2012 Charles Gardner as Otha Jeffries and David Parkes as Dan Breen credit Lara Goetsch

Cops under gun at TimeLine. 4 stars!