Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie is described as a “memory play”: its plot an extended flashback, its theatrical pretense laid bare. GLASS: SHATTERED, Michael Durkin’s…
View More GLASS: SHATTERED (Renegade): 60-second review
Category: 60-Second Review
VENUS IN FUR (PTC): 60-second review
Leopold von Sacher-Masoch is known today primarily for the word derived from his name: masochism, and for his scandalous 1870 novel VENUS IN FUR, the…
View More VENUS IN FUR (PTC): 60-second review
THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (Curio): 60-second review
“Rare moths, wives pretending to be sisters,” deadly moors, escaped killers, and a legendary hellhound: the plot points of Arthur Conan Doyle’s THE HOUND OF…
View More THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (Curio): 60-second review
KARMA 101 (GoCar Productions): 60-second review
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
60-second review: FUTURE FEST (Luna)
“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)
60-second review: THE AMERICA PLAY (P&P)
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)
60-second review: THE HAND OF GAUL (Inis Nua)
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)
60-Second Review: EVERYONE AND I (Azuka)
“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)
The Lantern’s noble HENRY V
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
60-second review: SEMINAR (PTC)
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)
60-second review: OTHELLO (Philly Shakes)
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)
60-second review: ENDGAME (Arden)
Samuel Beckett’s ENDGAME (now onstage at the Arden Theatre) is empty and confusing; the action confined, the pacing slow. For all this, it’s a great…
View More 60-second review: ENDGAME (Arden)
60-second review: EQUUS (Curio)
Peter Shaffer’s EQUUS premiered in 1973, and its age shows. A psycho-sexual exploration of insanity, spirituality, and conformity, it continues to appeal to generations of…
View More 60-second review: EQUUS (Curio)
60-second review: THE AMISH PROJECT (Simpatico/Renegade)
After a solid run from upstart Renegade Company, THE AMISH PROJECT is getting a revamped co-production with star indie company, Simpatico Theatre Project. Janice Rowland…
View More 60-second review: THE AMISH PROJECT (Simpatico/Renegade)
ASSISTANCE (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 review
RED-EYE to HAVRE de GRACE (Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental): 2012 Philadelphia Live Arts Festival
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