Category Archives: Drama

Jan 18

Standing Up as Her Best Self: “Trouble in Mind”

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Patrice Jean-Baptiste, James Turner, Kadahj Bennett, Allison Beauregard, MaConnia Chesser, Bill Mootos, and Davron S. Monroe in Trouble in Mind. Photo by Nile Hawver Nile Scott Shots.

Presented by Lyric Stage Boston
By Alice Childress
Directed by Dawn M. Simmons
Featuring Barlow Adamson, Patrice Jean-Baptiste, Allison Beauregard, Kadahj Bennett, McConnia Chesser, Davron Monroe, Bill Mootos, James Turner, and Robert Walsh

January 12 – February 4, 2024
Lyric Stage Company theatre
140 Clarendon Street
2nd Floor
Boston, MA 02116

Running Time: 2 hours and 20 minutes, including a 15-minute intermission.  

Masks are strongly recommended in the theater. 

Critique by Kitty Drexel

Content warning: Overt racism, sexism, identity, class, micro and macro-aggressions, implied casting couch situation, mansplaining

“Psalm 23”
23 – The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
The King James Bible

BOSTON, Mass. — Trouble in Mind at the Lyric Stage in Boston is about the making of a play within a play. It is a well-constructed production. Exceedingly well acted. Beautifully curated. It hurt my heart to watch. 

Theatre has the unfortunate job of telling stories that must be told so we remember the ongoing pain of others. Trouble in Mind reminds us that it isn’t enough to be nice and to mean well. To make the world a better place for everyone, we must be diligent against the forces that would oppress us. We don’t get to pat ourselves on the back for watching this one. Continue reading →

Jan 15

Read, Played, and Broken Into Pieces: “Northside Hollow” at the BCA

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Photo by Edward Boches. Pollock (left) and Kropf (right) in “Northside Hollow.”

Presented by Harbor Stage Company
Written and directed by Jonathan Fielding and Brenda Withers
Featuring Robert Kropf, Alex Pollock, Stacy Fischer, Joe Kenehan

Jan 11 –  20, 2024
Boston Center for the Arts
BCA Plaza Black Box Theatre
539 Tremont Street
Boston, MA 

The digital playbill

Performed with no intermission.

Review by Kitty Drexel

BOSTON, Mass. — Harbor Stage Company presents Northside Hollow by Jonathan Fielding and Brenda Withers. It was previously performed on the Cape in 2015. The 2024 production is damn fine theatre. 

Continue reading →

Dec 01

Times When Even the Rain Smells Confusing: “The Heart Sellers”

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Jenna Agbayani and Judy Song; photo T Charles Erickson.

Presented by The Huntington
By Lloyd Suh
Directed by May Adrales
Sound Design and Original Music by Fabian Obispo
Dramaturgy by Christine Mok
Dialect coaching by Joy Lanceta Coronel
Starring Jenna Agbayani and Judy Song
Featuring Matt Goldstein as the Radio DJ voiceover

Tuesday, November 21 – Saturday, December 23, 2023
Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA 
527 Tremont St.
Boston, MA 02116

Review by Kitty Drexel

BOSTON — The Huntington presents The Heart Sellers by Lloyd Suh at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA now through December 23. It is directed by May Adrales with original music by Fabian Obispo. It stars Jenna Agbayani and Judy Song and features Matt Goldstein as the Radio DJ. 

It is Thanksgiving 1973. Pres. Richard Nixon told the Associated Press that he wasn’t a crook. Henry Kissinger started his term as Secretary of State. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving premiered on CBS. Millions of families celebrate the holiday with loved ones over turkey and congested driving conditions. 

We meet new friends Luna (Jenna Agbayani) and Jane (Judy Song) as they sit together for the first time. Their husbands are working during the holiday at the same hospital in different departments. Luna saw Jane in the grocery store, recognized a kindred spirit, and invited her over to cook Luna’s first turkey.  Continue reading →

Oct 30

We Had A Girl (And a Whole Gothic Genre) Before You

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Annie Barbour as Weenie; photo by Nile Scott Studios.

Presented by Greater Boston Stage Company
Written by Trevor Schmidt
Directed by Weylin Symes
Production Stage Management by E.D. Fitzgerald
Scene Design by Katy Monthei
Starring Annie Barbour

OCT 20 – NOV 5, 2023
395 Main Street
​Stoneham, MA 02180
Facebook

Critique by Gillian Daniels

STONEHAM, Mass. – We Had A Girl Before You takes all the ingredients of Gothic literature, mashes them into a paste, and uses the resulting substance as mortar to lay the bricks of a whole new rambling, haunted house. That rambling house is brought to life wonderfully by Production Stage Manager E.D. Fitzgerald and Scenic Designer Kathy Monthei. The manor evoked here becomes increasingly eerie through the talents of Sound Designer David Remedios. All the elements paired with the story culminate in a symphony of dread and, as a Gothic fan, I adored it.

Edwina “Weenie” Trout (Annie Barbour) is a spinster who’s just acquired a new job at an isolated manor. Barbour’s talent carries the show, but how could it not? She’s the only actress on stage. This can be hard to remember as she seamlessly embodies the other characters our heroine encounters, from a saucy barmaid to her rich, mysterious employer. The latter’s introduction is where the story really begins to build a sense of dread. Her new master, emotionally distant and alluring, gives us a Mr. Rochester from Jane Eyre on steroids. Of course, Weenie is scared and enamored of him. Continue reading →

Sep 18

Witness History Repeating: “Prayer for the French Republic”

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The cast of “Prayer for the French Republic.” Photo by T Charles Erickson.

Presented by The Huntington
By Joshua Harmon
Directed by Loretta Greco
Featuring: Amy Resnick, Nael Nacer, Tony Estrella, Joshua Chessin-Yudin, Talia Sulla, Carly Zien
Lighting Design by Christopher Akerlind
Scenic Design by Andrew Boyce
Dramaturgy by Charles Haugland

September 7-October 8, 2023
264 Huntington Ave
Boston MA

Review by Maegan Bergeron-Clearwood

Content advisory: This production contains vivid descriptions and discussions of antisemitism, violence and death related to the Holocaust, hate crimes, and sexual violence. It also contains one instance of blood.

BOSTON, Mass. — A classic adage: if you ask two Jews a question, you’ll get three opinions. Joshua Harmon’s Prayer for the French Republic features so many Jewish characters – secular and religious, Sephardic and Ashkenazi, patrilineal and matrilineal, Zionist and antizionist (and everywhere in between) – most of whom are relatives living under the same roof. Opinions are too numerous to count. Naturally, the play is three hours long.

The play is massive in other ways as well, bouncing between 2016 and 1944 and featuring 11 characters played by 10 actors. Harmon traces the legacy of the Salomon family, who have been living a comfortable middle-class life in Paris for decades, only to find themselves grappling with the same terrifying questions that their great-grandparents (and many Jewish ancestors before them) once faced: Are we safe here anymore? Is it time to flee? Continue reading →

Aug 10

You’re Welcome to Walk (Concrete Info TBD): Little Amal Walks Across America

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The Walk Productions in association with Handspring Puppet Company
Presented by ArtsEmerson, American Repertory Theatre, Company One, the Institute of Contemporary Art, The City of Boston, and many others. 

September 7 – 9, 2023
Dewey Square, Boston — 4:00 PM
Chinatown Gate, Boston — 4:30 PM
Length: Two Hours

BOSTON, Mass. — On September 7, 2023 at 4 PM – 6 PM, Little Amal will begin her journey of 6,000 miles across the United States in Boston as part of the largest free public festival ever created bearing messages of compassion, empathy, and hope. She remains in Boston through September 9.

The “Walk with Amal” website says that Little Amal’s name means “hope” in Arabic. She is a 12-foot puppet of a 10-year-old Syrian refugee child.

Her urgent message is simple: “Don’t forget about us.”

Little Amal’s journeys across the world carry a message of hope for all displaced people and children separated from their families. She has traveled across 13 countries and met more than a million people.

Everyone is welcome to walk with Amal. Continue reading →

Jun 30

Breadth without Depth: “The Lehman Trilogy”

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Photo by T. Charles Erickson.

Presented by The Huntington
By Stefano Massini
Adapted by Ben Power
Directed by Carey Perloff
Featuring Joshua David Robinson, Steven Skybell, Mayer Lehman
Music performed by Joe LaRocca
Dramaturgy by Julie Felise Dubiner

June 29 – July 23, 2023
264 Huntington Ave.
Boston, MA 02115

Critique by Maegan Bergeron-Clearwood

Update: This article previously credited Carey Perloff as the former artistic director of the incorrect institution. Perloff was the AD of American Conservatory Theater.

BOSTON, Mass. — If the playbill for The Lehman Trilogy is any indication, The Huntington artistic team knows that are dealing with a flawed, if renowned, play. The three-and-a-half-hour epic has a developmental history of international proportions: Italian playwright Stefano Massini’s play about Jewish-American bankers was adapted by British playwright Ben Power, then enjoyed critical acclaim on the West End before transferring to Broadway and winning the 2022 Tony Award for Best Play.

The production was a critical darling, but never without its skeptics. Think-pieces abound have accused the play of a) pandering in antisemitic tropes and b) sidestepping the centrality of slavery in the Lehman brothers’ (and more broadly, capitalism’s) rise to power. Continue reading →

Jun 23

Knife’s Edge of Infinite Possibility: Boston New Works Festival and “SWAN”

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Presented by Moonbox Productions as part of the Boston New Works Festival 2023
SWAN is written by Sophie Kim
Directed by Kai Chao

June 22 – June 25, 2023
The Boston Center For The Arts
Stanford Calderwood Pavilion
527 Tremont Street
Boston, MA

2 hours with 1 intermission

Review by Kitty Drexel

UPDATE: A previous edit of this review had misspelled  Vivian Liu-Somers’ name. It has been corrected.

BOSTON, Mass. — It is never too late to become who you are. This grammatically incorrect* but philosophically accurate statement rings true for the protagonists of SWAN currently playing as part of Moonbox’s second annual Boston New Works Festival at the BCA. Age, gender, dayjob, etc. should be incidental factors in one’s ongoing search for identity.  Continue reading →

Mar 08

We Would Do Anything for Love, Including That: “Alma”

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Full frontal chancla fight, Karina Beleno Carney and Luz Lopez in “Alma”. Photo: Nile Scott Studios.

Presented by Central Square Theater
Written by Benjamin Benne
Directed by Elena Velasco
Choreography by Angie Jepson
Dialect Coaching by Cristhian Mancinas-García
Community Connectivity Dramaturgy by Zowie Rico
Featuring Karina Beleno Carney (she/ella) and Luz Lopez (she/her)

February 23 to March 26, 2023
Central Square Theater
450 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 
75 minutes with no intermission

Critique by Kitty Drexel

Cambridge, MA — The Oxford English Dictionary says the American Dream is “the ideal that every citizen of the United States should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative.” Benjamin Benne’s Alma at Central Square Theater is the story of a family that comes to accept that some American dreams are only available to wealthy, white, and documented dreamers.   Continue reading →

Feb 02

Beijing to Melbourne to Boston: “Made in China 2.0”

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Presented by ArtsEmerson
A Malthouse Theatre Production
Written & Performed by Wang Chong   
Codirected & Production designed by Emma Valente  
Codesigned by Emma Lockhart Wilson  
Dramaturgy by Mark Pritchard

February 1 – 12, 2023
American Sign Language Performance – Saturday, February 11 at 2:00 PM 
Audio Described Performance – Sunday, February 12 at 2:00 PM 
Emerson Paramount Center 
Jackie Liebergott Black Box 
559 Washington Street 
Boston, MA 02111

Recommended for Ages 16+
60 minutes, no intermission

Review by Kitty Drexel

Boston, MA — ArtsEmerson respectfully asked journalists attending Wang Chong’s Made in China 2.0 to please refrain from discussing certain topics in an email days before the performance. They did this to ensure Chong’s safety while he visits the US and when he eventually leaves the US. Boston can be dangerous. 

Journalists were encouraged to discuss Chong as an artist, his previous work, how his work was received, and his upcoming work. We were asked to be sensitive when discussing Chong’s style of theatre-making and why it’s considered risky. 

I readily agreed to ArtsEmerson’s request. Freedom of speech is important to me. The sanctity of human life is too. America loves freedom!  Continue reading →