Campy fun abounds at SINema After Hours. Shoshanna Green reviews a night of sin and scares at Walking Fish Theatre.
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Category: Reviews
THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA (Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival): Fickle Love and an Irresistible Canine
Contrasting the giddy inconstancy of youthful passion with the unconditional love for and the stolid fidelity of a pet dog, THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA—one of the Bard’s earliest works—is a delightful rom-com/bromance (descended from the medieval genre of male friendship literature) that offers the perfect entertainment for a summer audience. And the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival’s production, as directed by the ever-masterful Matt Pfeiffer, strikes the perfect balance between the comedy’s irrepressible fun and playfulness and its more serious message about regret, repentance, forgiveness, and camaraderie.
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DEATHTRAP (Bucks County Playhouse): A 60-Second Review
One of the most successful plays in Broadway history makes its way to the iconic Bucks County Playhouse. DEATHTRAP is a mystery/thriller (brimming with bleak humor) by Ira Levin (“Rosemary’s Baby). DEATHTRAP is the story of a once-famous playwright Sidney Bruhl (Saxon Palmer) with an enormous case of writer’s block living with his beautiful wife Myra (Angela Pierce) in Connecticut.
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WILD WITH HAPPY (Center Stage, Baltimore): All That and More!
Cathartic, camp, and euphorically uplifting, WILD WITH HAPPY—Philadelphia native Colman Domingo’s madcap adventure with death and grief, love, loss, and sexuality—keeps you laughing while tugging at your heartstrings and ardently reaffirming the joy of life. That’s quite an accomplishment, and Center Stage’s Baltimore premiere is quite a production.
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THE TOUGHEST BOY IN PHILADELPHIA (Iron Age Theatre): Gender confusion
While THE TOUGHEST BOY IN PHILADELPHIA has something important to say, the material is arranged so carelessly that I’ll be damned if I can tell you what it is.
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SoLow Fest: INTERNET STALKER (Corinna Burns) and BORTLE 8 (Chris Davis)
Corinna Burns’ INTERNET STALKER and Chris Davis’ BORTLE 8 is the perfect pairing of “two shows one roof” (not under, but on) in this year’s…
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MISSED CONNECTIONS & OTHER CURIOSITIES (Simpatico): A Craigslist cabaret
There’s a wonderful movement these days in the Philadelphia theater world to give voice to our younger generation. Dwindling arts funding, as well as the…
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Plato’s Porno Cave: The Trial (Little Berlin): Surrealist party, imagery orgy
To the left of the pyramid was a little shanty you could enter and perform a primal scream. A glass window on either side faced in on a small chamber with an apple and, if you hit the right decibel with your scream, the apple would explode. The mechanism for blowing up the apple failed pretty quickly (it worked a few times before the forces of chaos seeped into the mechanism), but that didn’t stop the crowd going in and screaming periodically while the Eye played master of ceremonies from his pyramid throne.
View More Plato’s Porno Cave: The Trial (Little Berlin): Surrealist party, imagery orgy
RITU COMES HOME (InterAct): Two gay men who practice Safe Charity become parents
Jason (David Bardeen) and Brendan (Jered McLenigan) ease the paucity of Ritu’s (Rebecca Khalil) existence by sending monthly checks through an aid organization. The last thing in the world they’d ever expect would be for their charity case to show up in their living room.
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WICCANS IN THE HOOD / TRADING RACES (Brainspunk): Let’s talk about race, baby
Brainspunk Theater keeps the conversation on race going with a pair of one-acts by Kansas City writer Michelle T. Johnson, WICCANS IN THE HOOD and TRADING RACES: FROM RODNEY KING TO PAULA DEEN.
View More WICCANS IN THE HOOD / TRADING RACES (Brainspunk): Let’s talk about race, baby
SEX, DRUGS, ROCK & ROLL (Plays & Players): 60-second review
In SEX, DRUGS, ROCK & ROLL, Eric Bogasian’s revolving cast of characters—an aging rock star, a homeless bottle man, an 80s yuppie, and a handful of others—have little in common except their masculine hedonism.
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THE REAL THING (The Wilma): Exquisite dialogue shines through spotty production
Tom’s Stoppard’s dramedy THE REAL THING is set on a constantly evolving stage transforming into different locations in the UK during the early 1980s. Sky-high walls disappear, doors emerge out of nowhere, and scenes fluidly fold into the next with the help of nimble cast and crewmembers. First off, a man sits building a house of cards in a perfectly done up living room, while awaiting his wife’s return. The card house collapses with her sudden entrance, as does their marriage when he confronts her with the passport she left behind – on her trip out of the country. The whole scene feels rather put on, and the fake English accents don’t help.
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WHAT HAPPENS IN THE WHITE HOUSE, STAYS IN THE WHITE HOUSE (New City): A New Perspective on First Families
New City Stage Company’s West Wing Festival on presidential politics concludes with a satirical take on the past and future occupants of the White House. Imaginative, amusing, and cynical, it considers how their private relationships and distinctive personalities might have impacted our history and could influence world affairs.
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INCORRUPTIBLE (Arden): Laughter in the monastery
The set of Michael Hollinger’s witty INCORRUPTIBLE looks like it has been there for hundreds of years, transporting one back to the days of monks…
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THE SCREWTAPE LETTTERS (Lantern): 60-second review
The Lantern Theater Company’s remount of THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS by C.S. Lewis is a sizzling show from hell. Kathryn Osenlund’s 60-second review
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CHAPTER TWO (Bucks County Playhouse): 60-second review
Directed by Marsha Mason, the actress in the original film adaptation, Neil Simon’s CHAPTER TWO is a romantic comedy/drama in the spirit of the Hotel Suite.
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THE 39 STEPS (Theatre Horizon): Thriller? I hardly know her!
Plot-wise, 39 STEPS stays quite true to the original film (often down to the dialogue), with a few other Hitchcock references thrown in for good measure. The difference? This play is the height of camp.
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COMMUNITAS (Almanac): The Contortionist and the Dancer
The action in COMMUNITAS could be best described as four people taking turns carrying one another around a space, then falling off, then swapping who carries whom. In a way, it is structured around a continual exploration of ways to make two or more people into one. Balance is challenged not by standing on a tight rope, but by joining two bodies at a single point and leaning precipitously apart; disassemble and repeat as necessary.
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HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING (Walnut Street Theatre): 60-Second review
J. Pierrepoint Finch (Jeremy Morse) is a determined window washer with a handbook “How to Succeed in Business” and a dream to navigate the corporate maze. Step one: apply for the job at a major corporation.
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ALTAR BOYZ (11th Hour): Raising the Praise!
The fast-paced spoof about a boy band saving the souls of an audience of sinners on the last stop of their “Raise the Praise” tour is filled with witty references to the Bible, the Passion of Christ, and the Catholic liturgy. The Boyz—aptly named Matthew, Mark, Luke, Juan, and Abraham–proselytize to prospective believers in real time through their songs, employing post-modern technology, current slang, and choreographed moves that gently skewer such popular acts as the Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync.
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