Using the endtimes as a backdrop, Andrew Bovell uses the drama within a family’s history as a parallel for the turbulence in humanity’s.
View More WHEN THE RAIN STOPS FALLING (Wilma): How a hard rain’s a gonna fall
Tag: Brian Ratcliffe
LOBBY HERO (Theatre Horizon): A web of unintended consequences
Kenneth Lonergan’s new play explores the many levels of trust.
View More LOBBY HERO (Theatre Horizon): A web of unintended consequences
What Can The Wilma Do With $10 Million?
A new $10 million in funds includes money for an updated facade, a cafe space, and a 10-member artistic company.
View More What Can The Wilma Do With $10 Million?
HANS BRINKER AND THE SILVER SKATES (Arden): The sweet rewards of hope, understanding, and kindness
A world-premiere stage adaptation of Mary Mapes Dodge’s 19th-century children’s story delivers a clear message about the importance of kindness and understanding.
View More HANS BRINKER AND THE SILVER SKATES (Arden): The sweet rewards of hope, understanding, and kindness
ANTIGONE (Wilma): Spectacular, but a spectacular failure
The man behind the 2013 Fringe Festival hit AJAX, The Madness directs his version of ANTIGONE for the Wilma Theater.
View More ANTIGONE (Wilma): Spectacular, but a spectacular failure
ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD (Wilma): A contemporary classic, in three parts
Tom Stoppard’s ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD is perhaps the most ubiquitous work of postmodern drama.
View More ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD (Wilma): A contemporary classic, in three parts
HAMLET (Wilma): Blanka Zizka’s daring production amazes while keeping its distance
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
Back on Stage After 12 Years: Deborah Crocker returns for SmokeyScout’s Nice and Fresh January!
Theater, dance, circus, and a return to the stage after 12 years. Nice and Fresh January is supremely accessible performance art.
View More Back on Stage After 12 Years: Deborah Crocker returns for SmokeyScout’s Nice and Fresh January!
RED SPEEDO (Theatre Exile): A dive into the waters of amorality
“We all do things that are sorta good, and things that are sorta not so good.” In RED SPEEDO, each character is capable of doing those things that are sorta not so good.
View More RED SPEEDO (Theatre Exile): A dive into the waters of amorality
A Conversation with Playwright Lucas Hnath, Director Deborah Block, and the Cast of Theatre Exile’s RED SPEEDO
Playwright Lucas Hnath raises serious legal, ethical, societal, and personal issues in RED SPEEDO, his 2013 play enjoying its Philadelphia premiere at Theatre Exile.
View More A Conversation with Playwright Lucas Hnath, Director Deborah Block, and the Cast of Theatre Exile’s RED SPEEDO
THE REAL THING (The Wilma): Exquisite dialogue shines through spotty production
Tom’s Stoppard’s dramedy THE REAL THING is set on a constantly evolving stage transforming into different locations in the UK during the early 1980s. Sky-high walls disappear, doors emerge out of nowhere, and scenes fluidly fold into the next with the help of nimble cast and crewmembers. First off, a man sits building a house of cards in a perfectly done up living room, while awaiting his wife’s return. The card house collapses with her sudden entrance, as does their marriage when he confronts her with the passport she left behind – on her trip out of the country. The whole scene feels rather put on, and the fake English accents don’t help.
View More THE REAL THING (The Wilma): Exquisite dialogue shines through spotty production
DON JUAN COMES HOME FROM IRAQ (Wilma): A Disparate Jigsaw
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
MAKESHIFT (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
MAKESHIFT (Murmuration Theater): 60-second review
Strange games are afoot upstairs at Plays and Players. Not light or fun games, either—we’re talking full-on Don’t-talk-about-our-son-Martha! games here. Murmuration Theater’s new play MAKESHIFT throws us right into the middle of two different stories, and figures we’re smart enough to figure out what’s going on. The show doesn’t dole out much information, and when it does, it’s timed for maximum effect. Once you get enough to realize the show’s central conceit (which is quite nice, and unfolds so organically that I’d hate to spoil it), the earlier scenes come into better focus and make more sense.
View More MAKESHIFT (Murmuration Theater): 60-second review
THE SEA PLAYS (Philadelphia Artists’ Collective): 2013 Fringe review 32.2
Eugene O’Neill’s early maritime heart-wrenchers, Bound East for Cardiff and In the Zone, are brought to life in the Philadelphia Artists’ Collective’s devastatingly effective site-specific…
View More THE SEA PLAYS (Philadelphia Artists’ Collective): 2013 Fringe review 32.2
[32.1] THE SEA PLAYS (Philadelphia Artists’ Collective): Fringe review
With a series of celebrated readings and full productions (including 2012 Fringe hit The Creditors) Philadelphia Artists’ Collective has established a reputation as one of…
View More [32.1] THE SEA PLAYS (Philadelphia Artists’ Collective): Fringe review