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An interview with actress Kimberly Gilbert appearing in Woolly Mammoth’s production of Boom
by Joel Markowitz

Boom, the three actor Peter Sinn Nochtrieb comedy, shifts into high gear with the performance of Kimberly Gilbert. (more…)

 

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Boom
By Peter Sinn Nachtrieb
Produced by Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
Directed by John Vreeke
Reviewed by Tim Treanor

I have some bad news for you. In the next few months, or years, life as we know it apparently will end, courtesy of a major collision between Earth and a great big comet. Regrettably, the few survivors will include, not an overweight, balding theater reviewer, but a nerdy fish scientist named Jules (Aubrey Deeker) and the hyperkinetic journalism student Jo (Kimberly Gilbert) who the fates have appointed as his partner in the arduous task of repopulating the world. I have learned about these unfortunate events from a museum exhibitor named Barbara (Sarah Marshall), who, being from the future, has a little perspective on them. I am happy to report that museum exhibitors from the future are just as pleasantly neurotic as they are today.

Boom, a wickedly clever play set against a backdrop of mass extinction is, curiously enough, a comedy: (more…)

MacHomer
by William Shakespeare, as modified by Rick Miller, channeling Matt Groening
directed by Sean Lynch
produced by WYRD at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
reviewed by Tim Treanor

In the middle of the stage, a huge knife suddenly materializes. It is shaped like a slice of pie and covered in blood. “Is that a dagger I see before me?” asks MacHomer (Homer Simpson (Rick Miller)). “Or…a pizza?” He seems to be right; the knife has turned into something out of Domino’s.  “Mmm…pizza.” (more…)

Maria/Stuart
By Jason Grote
Directed by Pam MacKinnon
Produced by Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
Reviewed by Tim Treanor

Here is what happened, all those hundreds of years ago, as re-imagined in Friedrich Schiller’s play Maria Stuart: Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland, is framed by a forged letter and executed for a treason she never committed, even though her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I, knew that she was not guilty. Here’s what happens in the absolutely astonishing world premiere now playing at Woolly Mammoth: Stuart (Eli James) has had his romantic dreams sustained for his entire adult life by a letter which he hides in a bust of Friedrich Schiller - a letter which may have been forged. (more…)

• If You See Something Say Something 
• by Leslie Weisman 

Our story begins at the White Sands Missile Range, a secure military installation in New Mexico.  It’s quite large; “you could fit three Rhode Islands in it,” Mike Daisey tells the capacity audience. (more…)

• Measure for Pleasure
• By David Grimm
• Directed by Howard Shalwitz
• Produced by Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
• Reviewed by Steven McKnight

If David Grimm attended Woolly Mammoth’s production of his Measure for Pleasure he would definitely be pleased.  His work, a Restoration romp updated with modern sensibilities and free from the restraints of good taste, gets a lively staging from an energetic cast and a fine production crew.  The result is ample measures of laughter in an entertaining comic adventure. (more…)

• Stunning
• by David Adjmi
• Directed by Anne Kauffman
• Produced by Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
• Reviewed by guest reviewer Joy Jones

I was hyped when I heard about the plot for Stunning. Here it comes, I thought, one of Woolly’s trademark edgy and unconventional plays that is disturbing in a good way. It’s described as a story about a young woman, cloistered in her Syrian-Jewish community in Brooklyn, NY, who gets exposed to new ideas and challenging realities when an African American maid comes to work for her. The synopsis was like the savory smell of a spicy dish I couldn’t wait to sample.

(more…)

• No Child
• By Nilaja Sun
• Directed by Hal Brooks
• Produced by Woolly Mammoth Theatre
• Reviewed by Joy Jones

Pop quiz question - What’s the name of that show about the brilliant but beleaguered teacher who works with talented but troubled teens in the inner city?  It’s an easy question because there are so many potential right answers - ‘Freedom Writers’, ‘Dangerous Minds’, ‘Boston Public’, ‘Stand & Deliver’, ‘To Sir, with Love’, ‘Up the Down Staircase’.

(more…)

• The K of D
• By Laura Schellhardt
• Directed by John Vreeke
• Produced by Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
• Reviewed by Lorraine Treanor

It’s just a plain rehearsal room. You’ve probably been in it before. But step through its curtains this time and see sheets, some sky blue, some dirt beige, a storyteller’s tent in the center, and the hint of - what? Turns out to be a fishing dock.

Hopefully the room will be packed, because you will seek the security of human contact as this tale unfolds.   (more…)

The Unmentionables

• By Bruce Norris
• Directed by Pam MacKinnon
• Produced by Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
• Reviewed by Rosalind Lacy

We’re thrust into a fictional West African country with an edgy prologue delivered by Etienne (Kofi Owusu), an African teenager who wears earphones, carries a digital MP3, and shouts at us from the audience balcony to go home and watch TV, save time and money. Do not watch this “no good” show, he warns us.  Don’t take him seriously and leave.  The Unmentionables by Bruce Norris, when brilliantly performed by a troupe of polished actors, as it is here, is worth the stay, even if it raises questions that make us squirm. (more…)