Monday Evening 1942

Bad news should be given straight up, and immediately, and so I shall. Steve LaRocque, a fine actor, competent director and very decent guy, has here written a Sominex™  tablet  of a play, so dull and tedious that he has managed to turn Monday evening, for the audience, into a week of Mondays. Read more

In Memory of Horton Foote

Playwright Horton Foote  passed away on March 4th in Hartford, Connecticut.  That night, the lights on Broadway were dimmed in honor of the prolific writer, who Ben Brantley in his essay in the NY Times described as “the playwright who cozied up to the chill in the hearth.” Read more

Dublin Carol

Dublin Carol
By Conor McPherson
Directed by Jack Sbarbori
Produced by Quotidian Theatre Company
Reviewed by Steven McKnight

Conor McPherson’s Dublin Carol consists of three scenes set in the office of assistant funeral director John Plunkett (John Decker) in Dublin on Christmas Eve.  The office is a nice creation by set designer Jack Sbarbori, just cluttered enough to be convincing and authentic in every touch, even down to the Aer Lingus coffee mug. Read more

Long Day’s Journey into Night

• Long Day’s Journey into Night
• By Eugene O’Neill
• Produced by Quotidian Theatre Company
• Directed by Bob Bartlett
• Reviewed by Tim Treanor

Long Day’s Journey into Night is old-school theater at its best: passionate, honest, intense, complex, and demanding. Quotidian’s no-frills production does full justice to the text, and gives the willing viewer an engrossing and periodically compelling experience. Read more

The Mollusc

• The Mollusc
• By Hubert Henry Davies
• Directed by Jack Sbarbori
• Produced by Quotidian Theatre Company        
• Reviewed by Steven McKnight

In a season where area theatergoers have been treated to serious works by great playwrights like August Wilson and Arthur Miller, an Edwardian drawing room comedy can be a timely treat.  Under any circumstances, however, it is easy to surrender to the charms of The Mollusc, a gentle and entertaining work that receives a spot-on production by Quotidian Theatre Company.

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The Carpetbaggers Children

• The Carpetbagger’s Children
• By Horton Foote
• Directed by Jack Sbarboni
• Produced by Quotidian Theatre Company
• Reviewed by Debbie Minter Jackson

‘Carpetbagger’ - we’ve all heard the term, learned about it in grade school history lessons of the Civil War.  It doesn’t have a particularly kind connotation, and in the current quiet production at the Writer’s Center, it is bandied about constantly to describe, place, and define a social construct for the Thompson family, set in Harrison, Texas.  In a series of monologs, three sisters share their experiences, reveal family secrets, and generally putter along relating pivotal events from their point of view. Read more