David Hare has the uncanny knack of being able to talk out of both sides of his mouth.
View More THE VERTICAL HOUR (Lantern): Still means somethingTag: Genevieve Perrier
Revisiting Pinter’s BETRAYAL: A commentary
An attempt to detangle this nine-scene play that’s designed to move backwards
View More Revisiting Pinter’s BETRAYAL: A commentaryBETRAYAL (Lantern): Reversal of fortunes
Pinter’s use of reverse chronology highlights depths beyond the quiet drama and sedate setting.
View More BETRAYAL (Lantern): Reversal of fortunesTHE GAP (Azuka): Self-discovery onstage
By revealing the plot through meta layers, Goidel reinforces the idea that we’re watching self-discovery through art.
View More THE GAP (Azuka): Self-discovery onstageTHE WOMEN (EgoPo): An engaging show turns a trifle into a treatise
Clare Boothe Luce saw her 1936 play as a critique of certain malicious denizens of Park Avenue. Director Lane Savadove sees more in it.
View More THE WOMEN (EgoPo): An engaging show turns a trifle into a treatisePHOTOGRAPH 51 (Lantern): Discovering the secret of life
The backstory of Rosalind Franklin’s seminal image that led to the discovery of the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule is examined in an engrossing Philadelphia premiere.
View More PHOTOGRAPH 51 (Lantern): Discovering the secret of lifeDETROIT (PTC): Where the American Dream goes to die
Cities and thrones and powers/ Stand in time’s eye,/ Almost as long as flowers,/ Which daily die
View More DETROIT (PTC): Where the American Dream goes to dieTHE 39 STEPS (Theatre Horizon): Thriller? I hardly know her!
Plot-wise, 39 STEPS stays quite true to the original film (often down to the dialogue), with a few other Hitchcock references thrown in for good measure. The difference? This play is the height of camp.
View More THE 39 STEPS (Theatre Horizon): Thriller? I hardly know her!Video Preview: Hitchcock’s THE 39 STEPS at Theatre Horizon
Dunk the master of mystery in a vat of absurdity and you have Alfred Hitchcock’s THE 39 STEPS, a zany adaptation of the 1935 movie.…
View More Video Preview: Hitchcock’s THE 39 STEPS at Theatre HorizonTHE LADY FROM THE SEA (Egopo): Bare production showcases Ibsen’s mental gymnastics
Henrik Ibsen’s name is so thoroughly canonized in theater history that it’s easy to forget just how progressive the man was as a playwright. Works…
View More THE LADY FROM THE SEA (Egopo): Bare production showcases Ibsen’s mental gymnasticsA CHILD’S CHRISTMAS IN WALES (Lantern): 60-second review
Dylan Thomas’s poem A CHILD’S CHRISTMAS IN WALES runs the risk of becoming sticky-sweet with nostalgia, and it is director Sebastienne Mundheim’s idiosyncratic vision, and the spot-on…
View More A CHILD’S CHRISTMAS IN WALES (Lantern): 60-second reviewA CHILD’S CHRISTMAS IN WALES (Lantern): Idyllic visions of a holiday past
Lantern Theater Company’s world premiere adaptation of A CHILD’S CHRISTMAS IN WALES by Charles McMahon and Sebastienne Mundheim, the inventive “interdisciplinary performance-maker” who designed the production and also directs, captures all the warmth, nostalgia, and childlike wonder of the original, employing live actors, puppets, miniature houses, plastic-bag clouds, and exhilarating snow flurries to transform Thomas’s descriptive language and idealized memories into an enchanting theatrical vision.
View More A CHILD’S CHRISTMAS IN WALES (Lantern): Idyllic visions of a holiday pastStudio X-hibition at Studio X
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 X60-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)A Demonic Tour de Force: The Screwtape Letters Returns to the Lantern Theater Company
C.S. Lewis‘s The Screwtape Letters is more overtly religious than his allegorical children’s books. But just as an appreciation for the Narnia tales does not require a…
View More A Demonic Tour de Force: The Screwtape Letters Returns to the Lantern Theater CompanyBruce Graham Scores Again with Theatre Exile’s Any Given Monday at Plays & Players Theater
Acclaimed local playwright Bruce Graham returns toTheatre Exile with Any Given Monday (now onstage at Plays & Players Theater), a sport-themed world premiere geared to ride the success of…
View More Bruce Graham Scores Again with Theatre Exile’s Any Given Monday at Plays & Players Theater