When a door slams in Round House Theatre’s production of Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love, the slam carries. Noises linger with an eerie resonance giving the impression that the entire play takes place underwater. In fact, with the play’s action confined to a motel room, the characters may as well be locked in an airtight […]
Archives for September 10, 2014
Kafka’s bug gets music-theatre treatment in Metamorphosis
Nearly every generation and geographical region interprets the plight of the outsider in its own way. The end result is a literary canon of outliers and misfits, counting in their ranks Holden Caulfield, Dr. Frankenstein’s monster, Ralph Ellison’s unnamed narrator, and–perhaps most notably–Gregor Samsa, the traveling salesman who woke one morning in his family home […]
Theater Alliance’s Spark Ignites the Stage
The theatre knows its wars. From King Lear to Black Watch, the tradition of soldier on a stage has a long, rich, and male-dominated history. Less often told—or staged—are the tales of women at war. And Theater Alliance’s world premiere production of Spark, directed by Colin Hovde, ignites a bold, new, and crucial facet of […]
The Cole Porter Project from In Series
What does one expect when attending an event called The Cole Porter Project? Given the composer-fronted name and the producing company (the In Series, primarily known for their accessible opera work), I imagined a fairly simple review of some of Porter’s classic tunes, plus a few of the lesser-known gems. A handful of great performers […]
King Lear, the Globe at Folger Theatre
The Globe Theatre, launching its tour of America with a stint at the Folger, has created a King Lear for our times. I have seen noble Lears, pathological Lears, fragile Lears, arrogant Lears, and Lears who have combined all of these characteristics in one. But the Lear which Joseph Marcell and director Bill Buckhurst give […]
Belleville at Studio Theatre
In her acclaimed plays 4000 Miles and After the Revolution Amy Herzog’s characters face moral dilemmas, particularly concerning the conflict between loyalty to the state and loyalty to family. In Belleville, Herzog’s characters face moron dilemmas, as in how to survive in the face of idiotic decisions. It is done with the same attention to […]