What Sounds Cool: April 2009

Beowulf: A Thousand Years of Baggage (3/31 - 4/18) | I've only seen Banana Bag & Bodice's The Fall and Rise of the Rising Fallen, and I didn't like it -- and yet, I can't stop thinking about the punk aesthetic, the warbling lyricism of the text, and the absurd design of the production. To match that, then, with Beowulf . . . unforgettable indeed, and the trailer they've posted (along with pull quotes like "that was fucking awesome") only furthers that.

Homer's ILIAD: Book One (3/31 - 4/25) | Aquila's adaptations are always at least visually pleasing (Prometheus Unbound), and their last show was dramatically adept, too (Catch-22). The Iliad is pretty daunting, but that just makes me all the more excited to see how they're going to manage it, especially given what looks like a contemporary flair.


Rock of Ages (open) | How American, that this 80s jukebox musical should rise from the New World (Stages) to reach Broadway. I'm not normally a fan of mindless entertainment, but sometimes you need to just cut loose, and from all the buzz I've heard, this is the right show for the right time.

Angela's Mixtape (4/6 - 5/2) | I love New Georges's commitment not just to female playwrights but to INTERESTING ones, ones with unique voices, styles, and flair. Their latest production deals with the mixing of memories and music (literally and figuratively). There's a hip-hop rhythm, but it looks like there's a substantial theatrical backbeat, too.

Artifacts of Consequence (4/16 - 5/2) | It's no secret that I think Electric Pear's been doing some of the more creative theater work in this town, so it's a pleasure to see the sort of play that their artistic director, Ashlin Halfnight, has been cooking up. The director, Kristjan Thor, has already proven to be adept with unique material (The Sexual Neuroses of Our Parents), as has at least one of the actresses (Hannah Cheek).

Pretty Theft (4/24 - 5/17) | Another company of note is Flux Ensemble, which has been steadily producing new work (or taking on daunting repertory trilogies) for some time now. Their latest play is written by the nervy Adam Syzmkowicz and features the physical Todd D'Amour; the crime here would be not stealing a ticket to check this out.