While some plays are heavy three course meals, THE SISTERHOOD is definitely dessert.
View More THE SISTERHOOD (MAUCKINGBIRD): A delightful hi-brow comedy skewers hi-brow pretensionsAuthor: Kathryn Osenlund
OSCAR WILDE: FROM THE DEPTHS (Lantern): A love that dared not speak its mind
With his brilliant work and tragic arc, Oscar Wilde remains a fascinating figure.
View More OSCAR WILDE: FROM THE DEPTHS (Lantern): A love that dared not speak its mindEQUIVOCATION (Arden): They made him an offer he can’t refuse
In the wake of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, Shakespeare is summoned to take on a play commission for the Crown.
View More EQUIVOCATION (Arden): They made him an offer he can’t refuseRIZZO (Theatre Exile): A romp through the Rizzo years
Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear when Frank Rizzo strode the city like he owned it.
View More RIZZO (Theatre Exile): A romp through the Rizzo yearsALIAS ELLIS MACKENZIE (Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental and CINEtica): 2015 Fringe review 50
Eleven skilled performers play crew or actors on the set of a Colombian TV show about 1980s American drug pilot and adventurer Barry Seal.
View More ALIAS ELLIS MACKENZIE (Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental and CINEtica): 2015 Fringe review 50A GREAT WAR (Iron Age): 2015 Fringe review 40
This tense, evocative play explores the eternal verities of war, sacrifice, and deceit.
View More A GREAT WAR (Iron Age): 2015 Fringe review 40NOISES OFF (Curio): Utter nonsense, superbly structured and out of control
Michael Frayn’s enormously popular 1980s play is a zany farce about doors and sardines, relationships, and mistakes.
View More NOISES OFF (Curio): Utter nonsense, superbly structured and out of controlHAMLET (Wilma): Blanka Zizka’s daring production amazes while keeping its distance
Not unlike the U.S. Constitution, HAMLET endures partly because its imperfections and spaces allow for different ways to read it.
View More HAMLET (Wilma): Blanka Zizka’s daring production amazes while keeping its distanceTHE WHALE (Theatre Exile): Intelligence and transformation moving under the surface
Not many plays have this kind of unmistakable resonance. When you encounter such a play, you know it. With works of consequence you can feel the pull of intelligence and transformation moving under the surface.
View More THE WHALE (Theatre Exile): Intelligence and transformation moving under the surfaceUNDER THE SKIN (Arden): The boundaries of the body and the limits of love: It’s complicated
There’s little inherent humor in a guy needing a kidney, but evidently no one told that to Michael Hollinger.
View More UNDER THE SKIN (Arden): The boundaries of the body and the limits of love: It’s complicatedHOT ‘n’ COLE: A Cole Porter Celebration! (Mauckingbird): What a swell party it is
Get yourself a glass of wine and enjoy Porter’s musical repartee and stylish insinuation, the swell costumes, and the sophisticated atmosphere.
View More HOT ‘n’ COLE: A Cole Porter Celebration! (Mauckingbird): What a swell party it isALICE’s ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND (Quintessence): Mystifying appearances and disappearances, levitations and mysterious goings-on at Mount Airy’s Sedgwick Theater
For the latest installment in their tradition of performing literary family classics for the holidays, Quintessence Theatre Group brings ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND and its parade of beloved batty characters to Sedgwick Theater.
View More ALICE’s ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND (Quintessence): Mystifying appearances and disappearances, levitations and mysterious goings-on at Mount Airy’s Sedgwick TheaterQED (Lantern) No doctorate in theoretical physics is required to enjoy this production
But you don’t have to be an egghead to enjoy this play. It’s a great show for non-physicists, a category that includes a whole lot of us.
View More QED (Lantern) No doctorate in theoretical physics is required to enjoy this production[NYC] STICKS AND BONES (The New Group): A revival with a local connection is attracting attention in New York
STICKS AND BONES vents Vietnam era fury against a war that sent an endless stream of young men home damaged or in body bags.
View More [NYC] STICKS AND BONES (The New Group): A revival with a local connection is attracting attention in New YorkTHE BODY LAUTREC (Aaron Cromie and Mary Tuomanen): Fringe Review 53.2
Aaron Cromie’s good-natured portrayal reflects the real Lautrec, who retained his artist’s eye and famed geniality even as he joined his friends in their sad retreat into alcoholism and the dementia of syphilis.
View More THE BODY LAUTREC (Aaron Cromie and Mary Tuomanen): Fringe Review 53.2Anna K (Chris Davis): 2014 Fringe Review 40.2
It would be fun to call ANNA K an irreverent romp through Tolstoy’s 1870s novel, Anna Karenina, but in fact playwright Chris Davis reverences the material in his own way. For all its comedy, and there’s plenty in his South Philly-style version, the play scans the storyline and retains underlying issues.
View More Anna K (Chris Davis): 2014 Fringe Review 40.2THE FOUR SEASONS RESTAURANT (Societas Raffaello Sanzio): Fringe Review 36.2
Romeo Castellucci has poured his personal inspirations and philosophy into this remarkable abstract production, but ultimately viewers must determine its meaning for themselves. To this viewer, the piece is a resounding “NO.”
View More THE FOUR SEASONS RESTAURANT (Societas Raffaello Sanzio): Fringe Review 36.2THE ADULTS (New Paradise Laboratories): Fringe Review 20.2
Whit MacLaughlin is going off the deep end with this one. Are you willing to jump in with him? New Paradise Laboratories’ handsomely crafted, meticulously acted, and totally weird production, is not easily accessible. Nothing much can be taken literally here, and the production doesn’t reward searching for specific meanings as it creates its own tilted world with its own skewed logic.
View More THE ADULTS (New Paradise Laboratories): Fringe Review 20.2SPLATTER (Manayunk Theatre Company): Fringe Review 24
This Neighborhood Fringe show, directed by Sean Connolly, transpires in the murky basement of an old church in Manayunk. The space lends an ideal sinister atmosphere to a play which, like many psychological thrillers, is more intimation and suspense than action.
View More SPLATTER (Manayunk Theatre Company): Fringe Review 24UNTITLED: WHAT YOU SEE OR WHAT DO YOU SEE (KrieArt): 2014 Fringe Review 19
This entry in the Visual Art category is an art exhibit based on the association between the person looking at the art and the meaning ascribed to the art itself. The artist, Krie Alden, who spoke to me at the event, is excited to be a part of FringeArts, and she loves the idea of “the Fringe being on the fringe, where they support the unexpected.”
View More UNTITLED: WHAT YOU SEE OR WHAT DO YOU SEE (KrieArt): 2014 Fringe Review 19