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 distance
Author: Kathryn Osenlund
Kathryn Osenlund, Theater aficionado. Reviewer for Phindie.com. ATCA member (American Theater Critics Assn.) Professor Emeritus Communications and Theater, Holy Family University. Instructor Philadelphia Police Academy: Police role plays and public speaking. Visiting Lecturer Oxford University. Instructor in Warsaw, Poland. NEA Fellow: Arts Journalism. Barrymore Award Nominator. National Critics Institute, Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. Education: Villanova, PhD in Media; Temple University, MA in Theater; UArts, BFA in Film.
THE 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 surface
UNDER 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 complicated
HOT ‘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 is
ALICE’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 Theater
QED (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 York
THE 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 53.2
Anna 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 40.2
THE 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 36.2
THE 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 20.2
SPLATTER (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 24
UNTITLED: 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
TWO STREET: A TALE OF STAR-CROSSED MUMMERS (Tribe of Fools): 2014 Fringe Review 12.1
This love story, full of gags, comedic misunderstandings and lotsa heart, encompasses two smitten gay mummers, family devotion, and mummer-love.
View More TWO STREET: A TALE OF STAR-CROSSED MUMMERS (Tribe of Fools): 2014 Fringe Review 12.1
XANADU (Mazeppa Productions): A campy, aMUSEing musical
Zeus has decreed that Muses from Mount Olympus are not allowed to fall in love with mortals – that includes the Muse Clio and a boy from Venice Beach. Therein lies a story of forbidden love, gumption, and sly swipes at certain Hollywood movies — especially XANADU (Universal Pictures, 1980).
View More XANADU (Mazeppa Productions): A campy, aMUSEing musical
HERRINGBONE (Flashpoint Theatre Company): A remarkably strange solo musical, about a boy … with a problem
This mighty peculiar story opens with a grown up George looking back at 1929 and singing, “Did ya ever have one of those years?” His parents have one foot in the poorhouse, as their only prosperous relative has just stinted them in his will. When eight-year-old George has the chance to take performance lessons from the surviving member of an old vaudeville act, he shows inexplicable ability beyond his years. Parental hopes for financial resurrection ride on little George singing and dancing his way to Hollywood.
View More HERRINGBONE (Flashpoint Theatre Company): A remarkably strange solo musical, about a boy … with a problem
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.
View More RITU COMES HOME (InterAct): Two gay men who practice Safe Charity become parents
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
View More THE SCREWTAPE LETTTERS (Lantern): 60-second review
RED-EYE TO HAVRE DE GRACE (Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental): New York Theatre Workshop sees a reshaped Philly Fringe hit
I have taken the train up from Philadelphia to the New York Theatre Workshop to see how RED-EYE to HAVRE de GRACE has fared since I last saw it. I had discovered it in the Philadelphia Live Arts workshop production in 2005. Between that iteration and the world premiere at Philadelphia Fringe Festival in 2012, an evolutionary process took place.
View More RED-EYE TO HAVRE DE GRACE (Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental): New York Theatre Workshop sees a reshaped Philly Fringe hit
OEDIPUSSY (Curio): Shenanigans, tomfoolery and ballyhoo reign
OEDIPUSSY isn’t something to analyze, it’s just something to enjoy— an antidote to life’s heavy stuff. Appealingly physical and comically overwrought, it’s tons of fun. The most amazing thing about this lunatic version is that the epic tragic story actually emerges through all the clowning, sight gags and laughter.
View More OEDIPUSSY (Curio): Shenanigans, tomfoolery and ballyhoo reign