PRESS

• BLOOD LOVE MADNESS PRESS PHOTOS

• Thursday October 6 , 2005

DAILY news/news
I guess it's accurate to say the three Japanese one-acts that make up the Actors' Gang's "Blood! Lust! Madness!" do indeed touch upon those particular subjects in roughly that order. They cover quite a bit of other thematic territory as well. And say what you will about the Gang's politics, their work is never boring and often arresting.

• Friday September 16 , 2005

LOS ANGELES TIMES
How cagey of the Actors' Gang to revisit "Blood! Love! Madness!" at its new Ivy Substation venue. Cagier still, director Brent Hinkley, some superb designers and a brilliant cast attack this 1992 omnibus of Japanese one-acts as full-scale reconception, to mesmerizing effect.

• Friday September 16 , 2005

DAILY BREEZE
After 20 years of presenting engaging, edgy work, The Actors' Gang has become one of Southern California's most respected theater companies.

"Blood! Love! Madness!" marks a new chapter for the company, because it's the first production since moving from its longtime Hollywood home to the historic Ivy Substation in Culver City -- a venue used by the Center Theatre Group for the past few seasons.

"Blood! Love! Madness!," a trio of one-act plays, was first produced by the Gang in 1992, though one of the plays has been replaced and director Brent Hinkley has made several conceptual changes.

• Thursday September 15 , 2005

LA Weekly
"Blood! Love! Madness!"
Superlative stagecraft envelops Actors Gang’s revival of this trio of Japanese one-acts, first presented by the company in 1992. Bearing disparate hints of Kabuki and Brechtian presentational style.

• Thursday September 15 , 2005

BACKSTAGE WEST
"Blood! Love! Madness!"
Those three words so succinctly describe the human state, don't they? How pleasing, then, to find universality in these three 20th century Japanese plays (translator uncredited), directed by Brent Hinkley to polished perfection. Japanese style inspires but is not mimicked in the magnificent work of the actors and the design team. Scenic designer Sibyl Wickersheimer, sound designer John Zalewski, costume designer Ann Closs-Farley, lighting designer Adam H. Greene, and prop designer Victoria Robinson create a stunning, appealing onstage world that beautifully blends Eastern and Western elements.

• Friday September 9 , 2005

VENTURA COUNTY STAR
Before the Los Angeles-based Actors' Gang theater troupe was formed, Brent Hinkley was -- like his Gang colleague Tim Robbins -- a student at UCLA. Hinkley worked at the school library and enjoyed breaks, not all of them official, in a secluded corner where old theater books were shelved.

A dusty volume that caught his eye one day was called "Modern Japanese Plays," which he found funny, because the book looked ancient.

"I don't think it had been checked out since 1925," Hinkley said. "I read it, and realized that nobody really knows these plays."

The plays were written in the early 20th century during a trend in Japan toward a more Western style.

"I knew right away I wanted to work on these plays," he said.

 

 

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