Call it Don Juan or Don Giovanni, the Don Juan story, handed down through time, is pre-loaded with a mix of serious and comic elements and a supernatural dimension. DON JUAN COMES HOME FROM IRAQ, from theater luminaries Paula Vogel (playwright) and Banka Zizka (director), has the gravitas down and doesn’t lose sight of humor, but extra pieces lodge within this puzzle’s slippery treatment of time and reality.
View More DON JUAN COMES HOME FROM IRAQ (Wilma): A Disparate Jigsaw
Theatre Exile mounts new, dicey plays and modern classics—badass classics, that is, from outstanding contemporary playwrights like Tracy Letts, Martin McDonough, and in this case,…
View More TRUE WEST (Theatre Exile): a rare, in-your-face take on a modern classic
The tragic news of Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s death by OD has, for the moment, wrested the subject of substance abuse from the shadows and thrust…
View More WATER BY THE SPOONFUL (Arden Theatre): Dissonance v. harmony
“Let’s assume you’re traveling,” says Thaddesus Phillips, placing the audience as the sojourner. And he whisks us off. With co-creators Tatiana Mallarino and Patrick Nealy, and director Rebecca Wright, Phillips has concocted something special with 17 BORDER CROSSINGS.
View More 17 BORDER CROSSINGS (Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental/FringeArts): Voyage of imagination
Here’s the setup: A young man has lived with his male lover for a few years. During a spat he falls for a woman. Things…
View More COCK (Theatre Exile): Spatial choreography reveals isolation, influence, and alliances.
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 up
Object lesson: A demonstration of a principle using a material object, which forms the basis of the lesson and is available to be inspected. —Collins…
View More [40.1] THE OBJECT LESSON (Geoff Sobelle): Fringe review
Two young guys who moved here from Tennessee in 2012 started their own theater company, which they named Blue Suede Productions as a tribute to…
View More [27] AND TELL SAD STORIES OF THE DEATHS OF QUEENS (Blue Suede Productions): Fringe review
This town knows Aaron Cromie, polymath of the arts—puppeteer, performer, director, designer of puppets, sets, and props; choreographer, musician, teacher, and writer. What else? I…
View More [21] SAINT JOAN, BETRAYED (Aaron Cromie & Mary Tuomanen): 2013 Fringe review
This play travels anything but light, but for aficionados—as I am—of talented and doomed Joe Orton or for those fascinated by Brian Epstein (the man…
View More TRAVELING LIGHT (Liam’s Sofa Cushion Fortress): 2013 Fringe review 13.2
The play transpires in and around Bruce Walsh’s living room. (September 14 performances will take place at the home of Doug Williams.) Three collaborating playwrights share…
View More [19] HOLLY’S DEAD SOLDIERS (Bruce Walsh, Douglas Williams, Chris Davis): 2013 Fringe review
Although founded ten years ago, Tribe of Fools Theatre Company really burst onto the scene with its inimitable Fringe ‘11 offering, Heavy Metal Dance Fag. Like that…
View More [18] ANTIHERO (Tribe of Fools Theatre Company): Fringe review
This outrageous frolic with a ridiculous premise begins in the meeting room of a quiet, conservative French coffee society. Everything is ordered and in its…
View More [7.1] THE SOCIETY (Jo Strømgren Kompani): Fringe review
To call this play My Big Fat Greek Endurance Test would be flippant, but it wouldn’t be far off the mark. Certainly AJAX, THE MADNESS…
View More [2.2] AJAX, THE MADNESS (Attis Theatre): Fringe review
Rob Henry and Brian Seaman, founders of Mazeppa Productions, the newest resident musical theater company in Philadelphia, offer an oasis of entertainment in the Sahara…
View More AVENUE Q (Mazeppa): A puppet oasis in the summer heat
EgoPo’s show closes at Plays & Players in Philadelphia tonight. I finally got to see it at the end of the run. The finale of…
View More Afterthoughts on UNCLE TOM’S CABIN: AN UNFORTUNATE HISTORY (EgoPo)
Hella Fresh is staging THE GAMBLING ROOM at Papermill Theater in Kensington. One of several little companies working in small neighborhood venues, Hella Fresh is…
View More THE GAMBLING ROOM (Hella Fresh Theater): An ambitious conundrum
On May 6 this reviewer took in the second of three play readings in Theatre Exile’s New Play Development Series. On tap was FLESH, celebrated…
View More Studio X-hibition at Studio X
An early version of this show lit up the Live Arts Festival in ’05, and I couldn’t wait to see the latest manifestation of the collaboration between Thaddeus Phillips’ Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental and Wilhelm Bros. music. The production has grown up over the intervening years. It’s bigger, wider, and deeper, and just as amazing and magical.
View More RED-EYE to HAVRE de GRACE (Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental): 2012 Philadelphia Live Arts Festival
You may ask, “Do we need yet another production of Romeo and Juliet?” The answer is yes we do. This is the Lantern. Next question? The…
View More Romeo and Juliet (Lantern Theater Company): Do we need another R&J?