Allen Radway, James Ijames, and Daniel Student discuss Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Brother/Sister trilogy. All three plays in the series hit Philadelphia stages this fall.
View More Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Brother/Sister Trilogy: Philadelphia audiences get a great look at an acclaimed new playwrightCategory: Theater
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SLASHER (Figment): An improv horror
SLASHER is a one hour improv play in the vein of a B-movie horror. There’s an unnecessarily precautious “splash area” where the audience may be stained with stray stage blood. An audience member’s spin of a wheel dictates the setting and holiday (a school on Easter weekend, on opening night). If this sounds like a description of the kind of show you like to see, you’ll probably like SLASHER.
View More SLASHER (Figment): An improv horrorTHE CONVERT (Wilma/Woolly Mammoth): Shining a light on colonialism
Colonialism is Pygmalian writ large: one culture trying to civilize another. In Danai Gurira’s melodramatic THE CONVERT, a priggish preacher (Irungu Mutu) in 1895 Rhodesia (present-day…
View More THE CONVERT (Wilma/Woolly Mammoth): Shining a light on colonialism4000 MILES (PTC): What a Long, Strange Trip it’s Been
As someone born in the mid-1980s, I’ve rolled my eyes at the sight of the word “Millennial” more times than I can count. What’s great about Amy Herzog’s 4000 MILES is that she refuses to imprison the characters in any social or political context.
View More 4000 MILES (PTC): What a Long, Strange Trip it’s BeenHAMLET (Quintessence): Brevity is the soul of it
Hip, fast-paced, with a frat-boy-cool lead: these aren’t usually phrases to describe HAMLET. But Quintessence Theatre Group’s heavily edited version takes a bare bodkin to Shakespeare’s story of revenge and existential crisis in the state of Denmark.
View More HAMLET (Quintessence): Brevity is the soul of itDaniel Student on Tarell Alvin McCraney: An interview with the Plays & Players director about the playwright and his works
Plays & Players Theatre is staging Marcus, Or the Secret of Sweet, the third part of Tarell Alvin McCraney’s acclaimed Brother/Sister series. Phindie spoke to P&P…
View More Daniel Student on Tarell Alvin McCraney: An interview with the Plays & Players director about the playwright and his worksROMEO AND JULIET (Curio): A same-sex take on Shakespeare’s classic
The world’s most famous love story is given a new twist. The familiar characters are now the teenaged daughters of the feuding Montague and Capulet families, whose tragic romance is used to explore the true universality of Shakespeare’s themes.
View More ROMEO AND JULIET (Curio): A same-sex take on Shakespeare’s classicTHE ELEPHANT ROOM (FringeArts): 60-second review
In the new FringeArts building, we are presented with what looks like a floating basement, decorated many decades ago, sitting on sloppily placed cinderblocks. Out of pure…
View More THE ELEPHANT ROOM (FringeArts): 60-second reviewBLINK (Inis Nua): The Manufacturing of Affection
Phil Porter’s BLINK—making its American premiere with Inis Nua Theatre—is a touching pastiche of romance, high drama and farce. It’s both heavy and light, comic…
View More BLINK (Inis Nua): The Manufacturing of AffectionA Philadelphia playwright you probably don’t know, but should
A hilarious and affecting world premiere by one of the best writers in Philadelphia is opening tomorrow, and you probably don’t know about it.
View More A Philadelphia playwright you probably don’t know, but shouldHow universal is Romeo and Juliet? Challenging hetronormative assumptions.
Shakespeare is timeless. Romeo and Juliet is a universal love story. You have probably heard those sentiments expressed before, but are they true? Well, it’s…
View More How universal is Romeo and Juliet? Challenging hetronormative assumptions.LUCKIEST KID (White Pines): 60-second review
Philly-based playwright Martha Kemper’s memoir-based LUCKIEST KID is an achievement just this side of brilliant. Playing the protagonist and main speaker in a story of…
View More LUCKIEST KID (White Pines): 60-second reviewThe Perfect Company in the Perfect City: REGENCY AND REVELRY at Lantern Theater Company
It’s now two hundred years ago that the famous line was published: “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of…
View More The Perfect Company in the Perfect City: REGENCY AND REVELRY at Lantern Theater CompanyTHE BROTHERS SIZE (Simpatico): 60-second review
The stories of the orishas, a pantheon of spirit personalities, has a lasting influence on the descendants of enslaved Africans throughout the Americas (The great…
View More THE BROTHERS SIZE (Simpatico): 60-second reviewDO NOT PUSH (GDP): Clown Symphony
Where invention, precision and skill are present, great theater is possible. Alex Suha, creator of DO NOT PUSH, has applied all of these attributes with a clever…
View More DO NOT PUSH (GDP): Clown SymphonyNICE AND FRESH October (SmokeyScout): New art pops up
Fresh from the inaugural weekend of NICE AND FRESH, I’m heartened to report that SmokeyScout Productions (founded by Josh McIlvain and Deborah Crocker in 2008)…
View More NICE AND FRESH October (SmokeyScout): New art pops up12 ANGRY MEN (Gokash): A revealing look at social justice
According to Wikipedia, 12 ANGRY MEN was originally a television play broadcast in 1954, eventually making its way to the (actual) stage and then to the silver…
View More 12 ANGRY MEN (Gokash): A revealing look at social justiceTHE MUSIC YOU REMEMBER (White Pines): An Introspective Journey through Love, Loss, and ‘60s Nostalgia
When burned-out middle-aged Professor Paul Diollio (Jerry Perna) learns via cell phone messages that he has been denied tenure, his car has been repossessed, and…
View More THE MUSIC YOU REMEMBER (White Pines): An Introspective Journey through Love, Loss, and ‘60s NostalgiaPARADE (Arden): A Musical Tragedy of Bigotry and Injustice
Set in Georgia between 1913 and 1915, PARADE examines the true story of Leo Frank, a transplanted Brooklyn-bred Jew accused of killing a thirteen-year-old girl…
View More PARADE (Arden): A Musical Tragedy of Bigotry and InjusticeEMMA (Lantern): Meddlesome Matchmaking and Regency Amusements
The Lantern opens its twentieth anniversary season with the Philadelphia premiere of Jane Austen’s class-conscious romantic comedy of manners, in which a young idle-rich heroine’s…
View More EMMA (Lantern): Meddlesome Matchmaking and Regency Amusements