Los Angeles Theater Briefs: 1026

Theater Review: Crone Creed

Kudos to the cast of Crone Creed who were utterly committed to a severely under written script, not truly ready for audience consumption.  Vivianna McCormick, Ben Ubiñas, Jacquelyn Ritz, April Nixon, Carolina Hoyos, Brennen Amonett, Corey Dorris, Avery Norris and Matthew Kirkwood, are truly the industrial strength adhesive that keeps this production together.  Without these exceptionally strong actors, there would not be a show.

Breaking every rule in Aristotle’s classical unities and the general four of playwriting (including Show, Don’t Tell), this anti-elitist, religion imbued, mythic fantasy, drama, begins in medieval Europe and makes its way to the 1800s American frontier.  There Vita (Vivianna McCormick), a young woman from an ancient lineage of time-traveling mystical witches known as Crones, has been reborn in order to battle her evil brother (Ben Ubiñas) – and misogyny – now running a corrupting force known as, The Fallen.  The Crones live as pseudo immortals through time-jumping.  Their purpose is to influence and protect human existence.  So, in order to defeat her brother Vita must do practically nothing in order to accomplish the takedown.  It’s complicated.

There are a lot of borrowed, highfalutin ideologies dancing inside this Power vs Choice mixer.   The whole Joan of Arc meets Sarah Connor to save (vaguely) everyone plot is set up as a symbol of spiritual resistance involving loyalty, oaths, reincarnation and moral conviction vs oppression. But all of them get lost once the two pull out their version of the Force in a heated battle, only to find out it’s their baby sister (Avery Norris) who is stronger than them both.

“Siblings: your only enemy you can’t live without.” ~Anonymous

Theater Review: Marisol

Director Amanda Weier was incredibly on the mark when she said, “Marisol feels astonishingly relevant.” The absurdist, apocalyptic, Obie-winning fable by Puerto Rican playwright José Rivera, is deeply entrenched in magical realism that is frankly more 2026 hyper reality than mere 1992 struggle for sanity story. That is, given predictions of AI ending human civilization in less than a decade from now. And the world blowing up or about to (literally) because of a single meta narcissist controlling all the levers of global power. Phew!  That’s a mouthful.

Seriously, though, although much of the cast went only superficially deep into the fear, paranoia, disorientation, and profound despair in the collapsing world of this script, lead Jade Santana (Marisol) hits her stride in the second act. And the key moment comes in a comically grotesque interaction.

As Hutchins Foster, wheelchairs onto the stage as the Man with Scar Tissue, he presents a harrowing and razor sharp physical embodiment of the urban decay, societal violence, and psychological trauma being inflicted onto the people. Foster’s performance is highly nuanced, as is his understanding of the material and delivery. His appearance is the true inflection point of the play. It kicks Marisol out of denial and onward into the challenge to fight, given to her by her guardian angel presently entrenched in the Save Earth Now battle.

“What a time to be alive, huh?

Recommended

Produced by Open Fist, Atwater Village Theatre. Performances run September 12 through October 24, with performances Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 4 p.m. (no performance Saturday, October 3). An additional performance will be held Monday, Oct. 5 at 8 p.m. Preview performances are Thursday, Sept. 10 and Friday, Sept. 11 at 8 p.m. Tickets range from $26 to $40.

The Backstage at the Geffen Online Auction is now live!

Bid now through Thursday, October 22, 2026, at 6 p.m.  Don’t let your favorite item get away—place your bid before the auction closes!

Lead photo: Hutchins Foster nad Jade Santana in Marisol at Open Fist Theatre. Photo by John Dlugolecki.

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