It’s a pretty safe bet that you didn’t have a high school teacher as cool as Aaron “Gobanna” Pleasant. By turns musician, radio DJ, and teacher at Philadelphia Mennonite High School, Pleasant wrote KARMA 101 to teach high schoolers about the realities of growing up, making decisions, and higher education.
View More KARMA 101 (GoCar Productions): 60-second review
Two main threads run through George Bernard Shaw’s plays: social critique (he was an early member of the socialist Fabian society) and sharp observant humor.…
View More ARMS AND THE MAN (Quintessence) plays up the farce
“One generation’s Orwellian dystopia is the next generation’s comfort-inducing lifestyle.” J. Ferron Hiatt, FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI TOY AND NOVELTY. The six short plays in Luna Theater’s…
View More 60-second review: FUTURE FEST (Luna)
The outskirts of Philadelphia are blessed with several high quality community theaters, and visits to them are a welcome treat for theatergoers accustomed to the cadence of…
View More Still Devastating: RUINED at The Stagecrafters
Abraham Lincoln’s status as “the Great Emancipator” is a foundational myth of the American nation: a racially loaded narrative explored and satirized by Suzan-Lori Parks…
View More 60-second review: THE AMERICA PLAY (P&P)
They only believe in things that can’t be seen. Oscar Wilde’s witty drawing room comedies are well known to theatergoers. SALOME, an experimental modernist piece…
View More Wilde’s curious SALOME at Villanova Theatre
A pleasingly unpretentious comedy, THE HAND OF GAUL is something of a departure for Inis Nua, which generally produces serious works by contemporary Irish and…
View More 60-second review: THE HAND OF GAUL (Inis Nua)
With their engaging interpretations of classic plays, Philadelphia Artists’ Collective has established a reputation as one of the best and boldest independent theater companies in…
View More Everybody’s talking about TIMON OF ATHENS (PAC)
I’m going to go out on a limb and say William Shakespeare is a pretty good playwright. Yet his stories, his speeches, his one-liners have so…
View More TIMON OF ATHENS (PAC) A rare glimpse at a Shakespeare work
“I go back where I came from to 6th Avenue/ and the tobacconist in the Ziegfeld Theatre and/ casually ask for a carton of Gauloises…
View More 60-Second Review: EVERYONE AND I (Azuka)
When presenting Shakespeare comedies, companies often forget that they should be funny. This is not the case with Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre’s production of MUCH ADO…
View More MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (Philly Shakes): A Shakespeare comedy that’s actually funny
UNDER THE WHALEBACK, a tale of the sea taking place on a fishing ship, will upset audiences at the Wilma Theater until April 7. As…
View More UNDER THE WHALEBACK (Wilma): Grumpy Professor Review
HENRY V, a wonderful Shakespeare play, is being presented by the Lantern Theater until the end of April . Charles McMahon usually does very exacting…
View More HENRY V (Lantern): Grumpy Professor Review
SEMINAR by the Philadelphia Theatre Company at the Suzanne Roberts Theater proved to be quite enjoyable for theatergoers. Even though the foul- mouthed professor berated…
View More SEMINAR (PTC): Grumpy Professor Review
Lorraine Hansberry’s classic A RAISIN IN THE SUN starts slow and takes a while to get to where it’s going, but the cast at the…
View More A RAISIN IN THE SUN (Arden): A delightful production of a hefty play
HENRY V completes Shakespeare’s four-part series on Plantagenet kings of England. No longer the indolent partier, Prince Hal has inherited the English throne, but is…
View More The Lantern’s noble HENRY V
GOOD PEOPLE is suffering a weak production at the venerable Walnut Street Theatre for seven weeks until April 28th. Criticizing the Walnut is like insulting…
View More GOOD PEOPLE (Walnut): Grumpy Professor Review
Writers will find much familiar in Theresa Rebeck’s SEMINAR, which brilliantly satirizes writerly blowhards (a proportionally large subset) and the self-seriousness necessary to pursue this art.…
View More 60-second review: SEMINAR (PTC)
OTHELLO by the Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre at 21st and Sansom, is quite an excellent show. Carmen Khan, the director, really gets perfect diction from every…
View More OTHELLO (Philly Shakes): Grumpy Professor Review
In most of Shakespeare’s tragedies, the characters are overtaken by the swirl of events, following fate to their bloody end. A notable exception is OTHELLO,…
View More 60-second review: OTHELLO (Philly Shakes)