In The Veils by Hope Villanueva, Melody, a female Marine translator in Afghanistan, has completed her tour of duty and returned stateside trying desperate to pick up the pieces of her life. That includes planning her wedding. Her mother and sister try to support her, but the memories, sights and sounds of the war are only […]
Archives for February 19, 2018
What Naomi Jacobson is uncovering in her first solo show, Becoming Dr. Ruth
Dr. Ruth Westheimer is a beloved ’80s icon. The tiny, yet big-opinioned sex therapist was a fixture on late night talk shows and the radio throughout the decade, and even fronted several of her own shows dealing with sex and relationships in a candid and funny manner.
Aaron Sorkin’s The Farnsworth Invention (review)
The Farnsworth Invention, showbiz writer Aaron Sorkin’s misfired attempt to retrofit a screenplay about the patent battle over television transmission into a stage drama was a dud when it opened in 2007 and is fatally defective still—even with solid performances from its two leads and energetic direction from 1st Stage Artistic Director Alex Levy.
Long Day’s Journey into Night at Everyman Theatre (review)
In 1919, Eugene O’Neill wrote a play called Exorcism. It is about shame. It is set in 1912, and in it the protagonist confesses to his boozy friend that he committed adultery with a prostitute because adultery was the only ground upon which he and his wife could get a divorce. It had one production […]
Robbie Schaefer’s stage debut in Light Years is luminous (review)
Light Years celebrates the cornerstone to all human relationships, the first and most defining: child and parent. In this case, the focus is Robbie Schaefer and his father Konnie (Bobby Smith). Konnie is a successful economist who left his home in Romania after World War II for Cyprus and then Israel and then finally to America. In […]
The Lathe of Heaven, a respectful and funny adaptation of the late Ursula Le Guin’s novel (review)
Dreams often come with wild, cartoonish images. We wake up remembering their eccentricity and wonder: “How did my brain come up with that?” Watching The Lathe of Heaven is like stepping into that. Filled to the brim with charming sci-fi zaniness, this show imaginatively transports audiences to a dystopian version of Portland, Oregon.