New York Critic

The Feather Gatherers by Normandy Sherwood and Craig Flanagin based in part on the Russian folktale The Soldier and the Devil Directed by Normandy Sherwood presented by The Drunkard’s Wife produced by The New Ohio Theater as part of its Ice Factory series There’s an old Russian folktale, The Devil and the Soldier… The soldier sells his fiddle to the (disguised) devil for a book that tells what will happen in the future. Then the soldier is treated to three days at the devil’s swank home (guess where). When he returns to the world, he realizes that he’s been gone not three days but three years. His mother and his girlfriend don’t recognize him, reject him. Naturally, our man becomes rich, but finally gets his fiddle and happiness back in a card game with the Evil One, at which he – also naturally – loses his wealth. Stravinsky based L’Histoire du soldat on this fable. The theater company The Drunkard’s Wife has taken the tale and adapted it into a riveting production, T...

Wayra created by Diqui James from Fuerza Bruta Wayra , created by Diqui James and from the Fuerza Bruta company, is a great 360-degree spectacle presented in the cavernous gutted shell of a bank building. The event occurs over our heads, actors flying about like so many birds to the beat of some pretty powerful music. They swing from the ceiling or run horizontally on the silver-matted walls. It’s a set of visual bursts, one after the other. It begins with back-lit drummers and ends with a cloudburst of spray on the audience. In one long passage, a plane of rigid, strong, transparent material descends from the ceiling – it’s a sort of false ceiling – covering the whole audience. There’s a layer of water on the upside. Prostrate, actresses are gleefully sliding around, peering at us, wonderfully lit so that sometimes it looks as if an actress’ foot is sticking down under the plastic. At another point a flexible piece of plastic is over our heads, a sort of thick show...

The Feather Gatherers by Normandy Sherwood and Craig Flanagin based in part on the Russian folktale The Soldier and the Devil directed by Normandy Sherwood presented by The Drunkard’s Wife produced by The New Ohio Theater as part of its Ice Factory series There’s an old Russian folktale, The Devil and the Soldier… The soldier sells his fiddle to the (disguised) devil for a book that tells what will happen in the future. Then the soldier is treated to three days at the devil’s swank home (guess where). When he returns to the world, he realizes that he’s been gone not three days but three years. His mother and his girlfriend don’t recognize him, reject him. Naturally, our man becomes rich, but finally gets his fiddle and happiness back in a card game with the Evil One, at which he – also naturally – loses his wealth. Stravinsky based L’Histoire du soldat on this fable. The theater company The Drunkard’s Wife has taken the tale and adapted it into a marvelous production, T...