Mirirai Sithole Archives - TheaterScene.net

Mirirai Sithole

If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka

March 11, 2019

Dynamically presented and sensationally performed, "If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka" is playwright Tori Sampson's maddeningly overblown adaptation of a fable with music. A surfeit of extraneous devices and a heavy-handed agenda overwhelm and drag out a tender and potentially resonant tale. There’s repetitive jokiness, a lumbering ghostly gospel sequence and an anti-climactic pretentious finale. Amidst the frustrating tangents are bright spots during a straight through nearly two hour [more]

School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play

November 17, 2017

Ms. Bioh’s snappy dialogue perfectly renders the rhythms of teenage lingo and the pain beneath the bravado, emitting the universality of adolescence. Bioh’s construction is meticulous as the events play out over 70 tight minutes. Besides the foreign setting there’s nothing really “new” about the play but’s it’s so well written and gloriously presented. [more]

The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World AKA The Negro Book of the Dead

December 5, 2016

There is no plot, just a series of verbal jousts played out on Riccardo Hernandez’ sleek, two-tier set with just the image of trees looming over the actors wearing Montana Blanco’s colorfully exaggerated costumes. From the childlike Prunes and Prisms of Ms. Sithole to the angrily twisted Bigger (a reference to Richard Wright) of Mr. Piniella, the actors recite the difficult lines, goaded to do their finest by director Lileana Blain-Cruz who totally understands the work. [more]

The Hundred We Are

March 29, 2016

Swedish novelist and playwright Jonas Hassen Khemiri’s new play, "The Hundred We Are," presents an emotionally compelling view on the different stages of one’s self encountered over a lifetime. From the time we are born, until the time of our passing, we learn to adapt to our surroundings and transition from life phase to life phase, with our evolution as a human being marked as life’s most important journey. Audiences are in for a treat as this provocative and progressive new play examines many of the important social issues occurring throughout the world in a fresh and truly thought-provoking way. [more]