Category Archives: Drama

Oct 29

I See a Red Door and I Want to Paint It Black: “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”

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Photo via MRT Facebook.

Presented by Merrimack Repertory Theatre
Adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher from the novella Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Directed by Jenny Lavery
Featuring: Brent Charles, Sarah Danko, Herman Gambhir, André Martin, Amber Quick, Ed Swidey

October 14-November 1, 2026
Merrimack Repertory Theatre
50 E Merrimack St
Lowell, MA 01852

Critique by Diana Lu

Run time: 120 minutes, with 15 minute intermission

LOWELL, Mass. — Jeffrey Hatcher’s 2008 adaptation is an interesting departure from the Robert Louis Stevenson novella. The basic premise remains largely the same: set in Victorian London, respected physician and researcher Henry Jekyll (André Martin) explores the duality of good and evil in human nature. Like the good old masculine scientist trope that he is, Dr. Jekyll experiments on himself and develops a potion that transforms him into his darker alter ego, Edward Hyde (all but Danko and Martin). Stripped of all conscience and apparently his medical degree, Mr. Hyde rampages through the streets of London at night, causing all sorts of ruckus for Dr. Jekyll and his neighbors. Continue reading →

Oct 19

With the Only Good Hand He Possesses: “To Kill a Mockingbird”

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Karl Kenzler, Karen Killeen; photo by Liza Voll.

Presented by The Huntington
By Aaron Sorkin
Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Harper Lee  
Directed by Huntington Artistic Director Loretta Greco 
Music and vocals by Ashley Frith

October 8 – November 8, 2026
The Huntington Theatre
264 Huntington Ave. Boston, MA 02115

TL;DR: The “TKAM” play is different from the novel. The Huntington’s production is great! Hire disabled actors to play disabled characters. 

Content Advisories: Explicit racial slurs, theatrical haze, and sound of a gunshot. This link for more→.

Run Time: Schedule 3 and a half hours from arrival to exit.

BOSTON — Apropos of nothing, let’s dig in.

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is playing at the Huntington Theatre in Boston. In it, three children tell the story of Atticus Finch, Tom Robinson and a township’s failure of justice for a Black man. The 14th Amendment of the Constitution guarantees due process, not justice. 

The Huntington’s summary of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is HERE. 

The BBC has a comprehensive examination of Harper Lee’s novel with illustrations HERE. 

For those wondering, this adaptation of the novel differs in several important ways. First, the story is told through three narrators: child and adult Scout (Karen Killeen), her brother Jem (Benjamin Izaak), and their new friend Dill (Andrew Stevens), instead of one, Scout. The play occurs over one summer instead of the book’s multiple seasons. We don’t see Miss Maudie’s house burn down or the destruction of the mad dog. Boo Radley (a solemn Jesse Hinson) remains, but his interactions with the children are reduced.     Continue reading →

Oct 03

Come Together, Off-Center: Saath-fest 2026

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Image via SAATh Fest.

Off-Kendrick’s South Asian-American Theater Festival (Saath-fest)
Presented by Off-Kendrick

September 18-20, 2026
The Dorothy and Charles Mosesian Center for the Arts
321 Arsenal Street
Watertown, MA 02472

Review by Diana Lu

WATERTOWN, Mass. — SAATh is not just an acronym; the name also means “to come together.” The South Asian American Theatre festival therefore is a rare occasion that South Asian storytelling communities all over America can come together and be centered. 

SAATh-fest is the flagship event for Off-Kendrick, a non-profit experimental theater group founded in 2008 by Bengali Bostonians. Kendrick means “center” in Bengali, so Off-Kendrick means off-center in Benglish. In the 18 years since its founding, Off-Kendrick has grown from a small group focusing on Bengali plays about the immigrant experience to an established cultural authority bringing original plays written and performed by artists across the South Asian diaspora to stages in New England. Continue reading →

Sep 22

Dear, Dead Days Beyond Recall: “All My Sons”

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Cast members of “All My Sons;” Photo by Benjamin Rose.

Presented by Lyric Stage of Boston
By Arthur Miller
Directed by Scott Edmiston
Compositions by Oleg Smirnov

Sep 23 – Oct 18, 2026
Lyric Stage
140 Clarendon Street
2nd Floor
Boston MA 02116

Critique by Kitty Drexel

TLDR: The Lyric’s production of All My Sons is sad, is triumphant. This family needs therapy. 

BOSTON — Arthur Miller’s All My Sons forces its male characters to face the consequences of their unscrupulous actions as businessmen, patriarchs, and neighbors. As they do, their female counterparts, their wives, sisters and mothers, perform the emotional and other invisible labor necessary to clean up the figurative and literal messes their men have made. This play contains themes such as survivor’s guilt, profit over principles, and the disillusionment of one white nuclear family’s American Dream after WWII, among others. The Lyric Stage’s production, directed by Scott Edmiston, runs in Boston through October 18. 

Each character of All my Sons intertwines with the next. Over three acts, we learn how the cast of characters are intentionally and unintentionally woven into each other’s half truths, secrets, and lies. It begins with self-made businessman Joe Keller (Bill Mootos) and neighborhood scion, a man who prides himself on building a manufacturing business for his nuclear family with his wife Kate (Laurie Marie Duncan) in Ohio. Their first son, Larry, was a pilot who went MIA during the war. Their second son, Chris (Mark Souza), survived as a decorated soldier and works in Joe’s factory. Years later, Joe, Katie and Chris still wrestle with Larry’s disappearance.  Continue reading →

Aug 23

An Infallible System of Interpretation: “Rhinoceros”

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Giamatti and Turturo in “Rhinoceros.” Photo by Hawver and Hall.

Presented by American Repertory Theater
By Eugene Ionesco
Translated by Derek Prouse
Directed by Diane Paulus

Aug. 14 – Sept. 27, 2026
Loeb Drama Center

Digital Playbill

Critique by Kitty Drexel

Runtime: Two hours, including one fifteen-minute intermission.

TLDR; Famous people on stage! Timely politics on stage! Vote the rhinoceri out.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Boston’s arts journalism is awash with news about the American Repertory Theatre’s production of Eugene Ionesco’s Rhinoceros. Rightly so, it’s a grand production worthy of its hype. Director Paulus is finally meeting a political moment as it occurs. She’s invited a grand, New York- and L.A.-based cast to play in Cambridge, MA. (Hello, Bostonian understudies! I appreciate you.) Ionesco’s plays lack universal appeal. Thanks to Derek Prouse’s translation, this charismatic production comes as close as one might get. 

Ionesco’s Rhinoceros dwells under the umbrella of the dramatist movement, the Theatre of the Absurd. TOTA, a 1950s & 1960s American and European theatre movement based on Albert Camus’ “The Myth of Sisyphus” (1942), posits the nihilistic/absurdist/existentialist belief that human existence is without meaning or purpose. Rather than do as Camus suggested, which was to find joy in the absurdity, playwrights such as Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco (the Romanian Beckett), Jean Genet (the French Ionesco), and Harold Pinter (the British Genet) decided to be depressed. 

Thanks, Reddit.

Continue reading →

Aug 05

We are all just prisoners here of our own device: “M: Refractions from an Evil Act”

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Grant and Hertzberg in “M.” Photo credit: Morganna Becker.

Presented by Exiled Theatre Company 
Written by James Wilkinson
Directed by Joe Juknievich
Starring: Julia Hertzberg, Sydney Grant, Tim Hoover and Peter Tone

July 31-Aug 9, 2026
Boston Playwrights’ Theatre

Critique by Kitty Drexel

TLDR: M is a work in progress; the acting is top-notch.

BOSTON — M: Refractions from An Evil Act includes English and French dialogue. There are no subtitles. (My French is abysmal.) My impression is that we aren’t meant to understand the French dialogue in M. This helps us sympathize with M, the character… And hopefully anyone thrust into a hairy situation involving language skills they don’t possess. Including ourselves.

Playwright Wilkinson creates a comprehensive world within a David Lynchian hotel in which his characters eke out their fraught existence. He shows and tells its rules through consistent repetition. Then, à la Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit, Wilkinson shows us what happens if characters don’t obey those rules: Characters collapse, disappear and reappear, alcohol is replaced with more alcohol… and the maid still comes to vacuum the guest room.  Continue reading →

Jul 25

Activism and Elitism are Kissing Cousins: “A New Era”

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Front – Patrice Jean Baptiste and MaConnia Chesser. Cast in background. Photo by Ken Yotsukura

Presented by Company One Boston
By Miranda Austen ADEkoje
Directed by Summer L. Williams
Dramaturgy by Lizzy Cooper Davis

July 18 – Aug. 8, 2026
The Strand Theatre
Online Playbill 

Critique by Kitty Drexel

Seating is general admission. This performance runs approximately 2 hours, including one 10-minute intermission.

TLDR: New plays are imperfect. Production under duress signifies resilience, fortitude, and mastery of one’s art.

DORCHESTER, Mass. — A New Era is a teaching play. It teaches us about the trailblazing careers of historical freedom-fighting Black women who accomplished great feminist works in Boston. The C1 website for A New Era tells us that this play was originally commissioned and developed for the National Park Service by Plays in Place as part of its Suffrage in Black & White series. This means A New Era was first developed to communicate many facts to an audience via dialogue in a short amount of time. It shouldn’t be judged by the same standards as another historically-based play about women’s voices such as, say, The Crucible. They are different genres with the same medium. Continue reading →

Jul 17

Alarm Goes On, Alarm Goes Off: “Paranormal Activity” (play)

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Cuddles in “Paranormal Activity.” Photo by Matthew Murphy.

A Strictly Limited Pre-Broadway Engagement
Presented by ATG Entertainment
Written by Levi Holloway 
Directed by Felix Barrett
Based on the “Paranormal Activity” films, first written and directed by Oren Peli and brought to the screen by Blumhouse and Solana Films.
Featuring: Cher Álvarez, Travis A. Knight, Shannon Cochran, Eva Kaminsky, Bobby J Howlett.

Sat, Jul 11 – Thurs, July 30, 2026
Emerson Colonial Theatre
Boston, MA

Article by Kitty Drexel

TLDR: Lots of scary, suspenseful fun; excellent acting and stagecraft; Not for folks who dislike suspended tension or jump scares. This critique contains light spoilers. 

BOSTON — I don’t prefer horror movies. I might watch one at home with a friend and the sound off if I have a persistent interest. I feel the same about horror novels unless I know for certain that the dog lives and the female protagonist survives unraped with all her limbs.  

Horror theatre, on the other hand, is good ole’ safe, insane, enthusiastically consensual fun. I take comfort in knowing that, behind the scenes, a hardworking team of corporeal humans has planned for weeks the titillation of their audience. Their work allows us to wriggle ourselves into an adrenaline-spiked, scared (horny?) stupor. If there ever were a real danger, an omniscient stage manager would call “Hold” into the God mic and save us all from a cortisol overdose. If you enjoy such an experience, too, Paranormal Activity running at the Emerson Colonial Theatre is for you. It had thrills and chills aplenty. Its stagecraft is top-notch – Both worthy reasons to shell out for tickets. You will be frightened if you want to be.  Continue reading →

Jun 12

A Swan Lake Superfan Peeled Like a Grapefruit, Stepping Out of Her Skin: “Black Swan”

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The “Black Swan” gala or the “Phantom” gala? We may never know. Photo Credit: Hawver and Hall.

Presented by American Repertory Theater
Based on the Searchlight Pictures Film “Black Swan,” with story by Andres Heinz
Book by Jen Silverman
Music, Lyrics, and Orchestrations by Dave Malloy
Directed and Choreographed by Sonya Tayeh

May 26 – July 12, 2026
Loeb Drama Center
64 Brattle Street
Cambridge, MA 02138

Content Warnings: This production depicts characters experiencing mental health crises and physical violence/body horror. It contains intense strobe, flashing lights, haze, fog, and loud noises. They are frickin’ cool as heck. The lighting, sound, and illusion design departments know how to throw a creepy party. 

Recommended for ages 16+.

Critique by Kitty Drexel

TLDR: Dance = good. Everything else = iffy.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The A.R.T.’s Black Swan is based on the award-winning 2010 Darren Aronofsky film of the same name. It should be noted that the musical is not a strict remake of the film, and the musical makes several swift departures. Patrons can appreciate the musical without intimately knowing its source material. I found a rewatch of the film helpful before attending, as it gave me context for the musical’s more abstract psychological moments. It also reminded me when to expect a potential scare, because I’m an inappropriate giggler. Depending on one’s personal preferences, it may be better to watch the film later. 

If you don’t want to watch the movie, you can get by on reading the Wikipedia summary. Writing of which, this article contains spoilers. You have been warned.  Continue reading →

May 16

Always and Forever, Each Moment with You: “Oedipus El Rey”

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L to R: Victor Almanzar, Javier David, Juan Arturo,Gabe Martínez in Oedipus El Rey; directed by Loretta Greco; photo by Marc J. Franklin

Presented by The Huntington
By Luis Alfaro
Directed by Loretta Greco
Dramaturgy by Sonia Fernandez and Ynika Yuagg
Fight direction and intimacy coaching by Jesse Hinson 
Voice and dialect coaching by Adi Cabral

May 7 – Sunday, June 14, 2026
The Roberts Studio
Calderwood Pavilion 
Boston Center for the Arts
527 Tremont Street, Boston, MA, 02116

Online Playbill

The show contains full but brief nudity. Do with that information what you will. Check out the warnings HERE. 

Critique by Kitty Drexel

BOSTON — Audience members were activated on Wednesday night’s performance of Oedipus El Rey (now extended through June 14!) in the Calderwood Pavilion. The room buzzed with the conversation of friends greeting friends, ushers finding seats, Latin music played; it was the general hubbub of pre-performance excitement. No matter what happened on the stage, the atmosphere welcomed a good time for most of us.

I say most, because The Huntington’s Oedipus El Rey was written with the LA Chicano community in mind. Alfaro’s play borrows heavily from Chicano stereotypes, such as illiterate criminals and hypersexualized women. Alfaro’s work then grants personhood to some of them.  Continue reading →