Caravaggio Reviews
/ by Guest UserDirector Dale Heinen compiles a gifted ensemble both on and off-stage to vividly bring this work to life. Lee Keenan’s remarkable lighting design adds much to the dramatic moods of the play and recreates some of Caravaggio’s masterpieces on stage with awe-inspiring effect.
Read More[One] can easily see the parallels Vetere draws in the play to the increased influence of fanatical religion, causing more violence both then and now. Vetere's point that true spirituality can come in unconventional forms applies directly to Caravaggio's once-scandalous but now revered masterpieces.
Read MoreThe intimate production, which unfolds on Lee Keenan's sumptuous, burnished set, features projections of the artist's paintings and has an autumnal look thanks to Keenan's evocative lighting that recreates the luminosity and chiaroscuro of Caravaggio's paintings.
Read More[There's] a magnificent cast at work here. As Caravaggio, Mike Simmer's feverish intensity propels the piece. From the humanity of his paintings (gorgeously realized as living tableaux throughout the production), comes the crashing, crushing truth that "the loneliness of the spirit and the loneliness of the flesh are one and the same," a truth Simmer delivers with primal, howling fierceness.
Read More"In its best moments, Richard Vetere's Caravaggio recalls the work of Tom Stoppard in its lucid and complex dissection of such issues as religion, realism, art and romanticism.... this is quite the fascinating little drama, especially for anyone interested in the life and work of one Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, a maverick genius active in Italy between 1593 and 1610."
Read MoreCaravaggio is a tightly written work filled with accurate references to the times and events in 1600 Italy. The power of the Church and the evil of The Inquisition are depicted. We see Caravaggio’s (Mike Simmer) temper in several well staged sword fights, his love of boys and his contempt for the money-grabbing artists who paint to please not to create their internal visions.
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