With all the claustrophobia of an Otto Dix painting, Luna Theater’s production of Martin McDonagh’s THE PILLOWMAN is a delicious 140-minute-anxiety attack. Robert DaPonte is remarkably arresting…
View More THE PILLOWMAN (Luna Theater): 60 Second ReviewAuthor: Jessica Foley
UP FROM THE ASHES (Iron Age Theatre): A bit shy of genius
Saturday, March 25th, 1911, 4:40pm a fire broke out on the eighth floor of largest blouse making factory in New York City, the Triangle…
View More UP FROM THE ASHES (Iron Age Theatre): A bit shy of geniusNERDS (PTC): As Steve Jobs said, “All you really have in life is time”
In The Bite in the Apple: A Memoir of My Life With Steve Jobs, Chrisann Brennan—Steve Jobs’s first girlfriend—wrote “Steve often said that he had a…
View More NERDS (PTC): As Steve Jobs said, “All you really have in life is time”RISK! TRUE TALES BOLDLY TOLD (First Person Arts): Risky storytelling pays off
Okay, Kevin Allison’s RISK! is the undisputed G-spot of the 12th annual First Person Arts Festival. The format is simple: five people step behind a microphone and relate their most private thoughts in the form of a story to an audience of strangers.
View More RISK! TRUE TALES BOLDLY TOLD (First Person Arts): Risky storytelling pays offMAKESHIFT (Murmuration Theater): A play not just about cake
Ten seconds into Murmuration’s inaugural production of Jessie Bear’s brand spankin’ new play, MAKESHIFT, Brian David Ratcliff, stands like a little boy by his lonesome on stage in what he describes as a devastated post-apocalyptic earth donning a royal blue super hero cape, goggles strapped to his head, holding a tape recorder up to his mouth declaring: “I, Michael Bolton will save the world.” I thought: “Wow, we are really on the edge of a cliff here, and Oops, I think we fell off into—I don’t know what.”
View More MAKESHIFT (Murmuration Theater): A play not just about cake[20] PAY UP (Pig Iron Theatre Company with The University of the Arts): Fringe review
This is not a play. Therefore this is not a review, but a warning. If you’re looking to sit in a darkened theater watching actors…
View More [20] PAY UP (Pig Iron Theatre Company with The University of the Arts): Fringe reviewTRAVELING LIGHT (Liam’s Sofa Cushion Fortress): 2013 Fringe review 13.1
Entering the Adrienne’s Skybox into Liam’s Sofa Cushion Fortress Philadelphia premiere production of TRAVELING LIGHT, I was worried. I normally abhor plays hinged around real-life…
View More TRAVELING LIGHT (Liam’s Sofa Cushion Fortress): 2013 Fringe review 13.1RETURN OF CONFESSIONS OF A PLATE AND SHOE (SmokeyScout): 60-second review
Josh McIlvain’s RETURN OF CONFESSIONS OF A PLATE AND SHOE should be put in a time capsule and used by future generations as a how-to…
View More RETURN OF CONFESSIONS OF A PLATE AND SHOE (SmokeyScout): 60-second reviewAnother take on GLASS: SHATTERED (Renegade)
Pacified by a pre-show serving of *Little Baby’s* ice cream, the Renegade Company’s audience sat in a cozy room with broken victrola records scattered on…
View More Another take on GLASS: SHATTERED (Renegade)UNCLE TOM’S CABIN: AN UNFORTUNATE HISTORY (EgoPo): An unfortunate production
Rooted like wooden figurines in a nineteenth-century music box, the cast of EgoPo Classic Theater’s adaptation of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s UNCLE TOM’s CABIN stand in…
View More UNCLE TOM’S CABIN: AN UNFORTUNATE HISTORY (EgoPo): An unfortunate productionASSISTANCE (Wilma): 60-second review
Cutting close to the bone, Lesley Headland’s ASSISTANCE is a protest, as provocative as Sophie Treadwell’s Machinal (1928), exposing the Darwinian-exploitative nature of the 2013…
View More ASSISTANCE (Wilma): 60-second reviewALP D’HUEZ (Hella Fresh): One couple’s twisting mountain stage
Kensington cops may ask why you’re on rundown Ormes Street, but don’t get rattled: the play happening inside the Papermill Theater satisfies like mom’s chicken…
View More ALP D’HUEZ (Hella Fresh): One couple’s twisting mountain stage