(Boston) No matter what you’ve heard, The Whale is not a play about obesity. That may be hard to remember when you see a man drowning in his own corpulent flesh, the junk food wrappers strewn around his apartment serving as a testament to his mortal sin. Continue reading →
(Boston) Chekhov intended The Seagull play to be a comedy. He wrote a famous letter to his friend Suvorin on October 21, 1895 describing his intent and further elaborated that Seagull would defy the conventions of theatre. No kidding. It is a comedy for the same reasons Springtime for Hitler is a comedy. The one exception being that no RogerDeBris character arrives to save us from our sensibilities. To sum up, without Roger, The Seagull is a drama about people being terrible to each other while lamenting their own misery. In Russia. While discussing the theatrical arts. It isn’t very funny (unless you’re a sadist). What it is, is deeply depressing. Continue reading →
(Watertown) The story goes that an earnest young monk once asked a Zen master to describe the immaculate nature of the Buddha. The Zen Master, most likely with an insufferable grin on his face, pointed to a pile of dung.
This sums up the life of Antonio Salieri (Benjamin Evett) in the spirited production of Amadeus being staged at the Arsenal Center for the Arts. Salieri, an accomplished composer who writes operas for Hapsburg monarchs, dedicates his life to capture the music of God. Instead, he discovers his own private dung heap in the form of a foul-mouthed former child prodigy named Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tim Spears). Salieri is crushed to learn that Mozart, a drunk, womanizing jerk, has a much clearer channel to God’s radio station and can compose the most beautiful music the world has ever known, even while playing billiards. It drives the devout Italian composer to lose both his faith and his scruples. Continue reading →
Photo by Gary Ng. Sirena Abalian as Pippi Longstocking.
Presented by Wheelock Family Theatre
Story by Astrid Lindgren
Adapted for the stage by Thomas W. Olson
Music by Roberta Carlson
Directed by Wendy Lement
Boston, Massachusetts
April 12th – May 12th, 2013
Autism Friendly Modified Performance: Saturday April 27 at 10:00am
ASL/AD: Friday May 10 at 7:30 & Sunday May 12 at 3:00
All performances offer Open Captioning
Wheelock Family Theatre Facebook Page
Review by Craig Idlebrook
(Boston) Why is everyone in such a hurry to update our iconic and innocent redheads? A cover for a new edition of Anne of Green Gables ditches her red hair and makes her uncomfortably shapely. The pigtailed girl in the Wendy’s logo seems to have grown up and has nothing more to do than disparage other peoples’ lunches. And now we have Pippi Longstocking to add to the list. Continue reading →
50 East Merrimack Street Lowell, MA
April 25th – May 19th, 2013
MRT Facebook Page
Review by Craig Idlebrook
(Lowell) If you want to see inside the male workplace psyche, you must see the new Merrimack Repertory Theatre production of Glengarry Glen Ross, but I warn you: it’s not a pretty picture. It’s every man for himself and there is no mercy in David Mamet’s brutal examination of greed. Continue reading →
2013 Craig Bailey/Perspective Photo — with Meredith Saran, Stewart Evan Smith Jr, Noam Ash, Dobs Ebiama and Jordan Clark. White hot nerdity and geekery abound!
Presented by Company One
by Qui Nguyen
Directed by Shira Milikowsky
(Boston) The Vampire Cowboys Theatre Company at Center Stage, NY has been centered around making theatre that engages an audience of like-minded people. Mainly popular entertainment, most productions incorporate a large amount of stage combat as well as clever use of props and costumes. Company One brings indie sensibilities to a production that fans the heart flames of con-going die-hard gamers (both LARP and video) as well as n00bs for an overall shiny audience experience. Continue reading →
Omar Robinson, Johnny Lee Davenport*, and Johnnie McQuarley in the foreground, with Jesse Hinson* (Pericles) and the cast in the background. Photo: Stratton McCrady Photography
(Boston) It’s easy to see why Pericles, Prince of Tyre isn’t one of Shakespeare’s best loved plays. The plot is often as lost at sea as the titular character, who drifts from one melodramatic episode to the next on an unending voyage. Pericles’ journey begins with villainous incest and the threat of death and, after abandoning this thread, continues on to tragic storms, kidnappings, and brothels. Taking on this play means a potential mess. Continue reading →
Kickstarter Page The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare
January 9-19, 2014, at The Chain Theatre, 21-28 45th Rd, Long Island City, NY Iphigenia at Aulis by Euripides
March 31-April 13, 2014, at The Secret Theatre’s Poco Theatre, 44-02 33rd St, Long Island City, NY
I passed on my blog to Kitty Drexel when I realized that I could no longer deny my desire to create a theatre company. Long Island City, one of the major residences of New York based theatre people, is becoming an economical alternative for theatrical productions. I was born in New Jersey, so it was only a matter of time before I inched my way back to the area. I want to give artists and audiences the opportunity to be a part of quality theatre, regardless of income. I am trying to do what Whistler in the Dark has done for Boston to the Queens area.
Swiftly Tilting Theatre Project is an artist community that will work towards bringing artists and audiences together while allowing us all to not be crushed by hard economic times.
Please watch the video and even the smallest pledge to the Kickstarter will help my dream become a reality.
Rich scene painting, solid theatre. Bravi tutti! PHOTO CREDIT – Richard Termine
My sincere apologies to the cast and crew of Siti Company and ArtsEmerson. This review is late because of the traumatic events of Friday, April 19. In my own personal turmoil, I was unable to write your review. I humbly beg your pardon!
presented by ArtsEmerson
adapted by Jocelyn Clarke from Trojan Women (After Euripides)
directed by Anne Bogart
created and performed by Siti Company
Original music composed and performed by the insanely talented Christian Frederickson
The Paramount Center
Paramount Mainstage
559 Washington Street
Boston, MA
April 17 – 21 ArtsEmerson Facebook Page
Siti Company Facebook Page
90 minutes with no intermission because the subject matter is so heavy that people might leave.
(Boston) The bodies of women are the casualties of wars. Even today in places such as The (Republic of) Congo, Uganda, Afghanistan, Syria, Steubenville and even late night in Harvard Square, women are held responsible for the violent decisions of men eager to wield their entitlement in public arenas. There is a political war in The Congo and every Spring there is a war against women on the streets. In any situation, women are blamed for the violence. Excuses range from acting in ways unbefitting a lady or luring men with our bodies. In reality, it is the perpetrators who are to blame. Rape, like other acts of violence, is never about sexuality; it is always about power. In Siti Company’s production of Trojan Women, this is still true. Continue reading →
Presented by American Repertory Theatre
A songplay by Banana Bag and Bodice
Text and lyrics by Jason Craig
Music by Dave Malloy
Directed by Rod Hipskind, Mallory Catlett
(Cambridge) An aggressively weird audio feast, this Beowulf is a musical take on the millennia-old epic-poem. The dialogue performs the syntax gymnastics of Seamus Heaney’s translation while the songs are guttural and set to a frantic, pleasing percussion. Banana Bag and Bodice’s production, though, both honors the source material while dissecting it. Continue reading →
