Hearing the very first minutely affected syllable breathed through a totally dark theatre, I knew that I was in for something special as an audience member of Speak Easy Stage Company’s final production of the season, Tony award winning, The Drowsy Chaperone. Our narrator, “Man in chair”, is quick to bring us into the particulars [...]
It’s a brand new year for the Boston theatre scene, and most of the local production companies are well into their seasons. Their holiday shows just a pleasant memory, it’s time to up the ante and add a little “pow” to the hum-drum winter months in order to keep their audiences awake through the seasonal [...]
David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross is as poignant today as it must have been when it was first presented in the early 1980s. The anxiety and desperation of buyers and brokers remains pertinent in our society, serving as catharsis for the repercussions for the recovering economy of our present. Though the causes have changed and [...]
When you have had just about all the tinsel, eggnog, and crowded malls that you can possibly handle, Speakeasy Stage Company’s Striking 12 is like a deep breath of fresh air to clear your lungs of all the chestnuts and winter berry. Now don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with holiday shows that come [...]
The Shirley, VT Play-Festival in a word: synergy. The Huntington, SpeakEasy, and Company One come together to present three works of play-write Annie Baker, all of which take place in the fictional town of Shirley, VT. You had me at Vermont. I was raised camping and skiing in Vermont, traditions I still maintain today. I [...]
The absurdity of a job market where positions are so few and applicants so numerous can seem maddening. From the leap-frogging circles of niceties, and no seeming source of answers, one can begin to feel un-tethered Heart & Dagger’s production of Jean-Claude Van Itallie’s Interview captures the lunacy. Such a production is the very richness [...]
One thing I can count on is the Zeitgeist Stage Company’s ability to choose prevalent, poignant pieces that carry some socio-political statement. True to form, Zeitgeist presents the sardonically fresh Enron by Lucy Prebble. I was very excited to see this production. I tout the work of the company, and was glad for the opportunity [...]
Sarah Ruhl’s play concerning women’s sexual awakening and their men’s response in the electrical age is a thrilling subject. Ruhl stepped out of the box when writing this 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist and Tony Nominated play. I had very high expectations for what was called a “laugh-out-loud provocative and touching play” but I was surprised [...]
Unfortunately, grim is the best way to describe Company One’s recent production of Grimm, a retelling of seven classic Brother’s Grimm fairy-tales. Clocking in at a laborious 2 hours and forty five minutes, these “re-imagined” vignettes were not the dark and thoughtful pieces I had hoped for, but on the whole were a poorly written [...]
I have had the pleasure of reviewing much of the Company One 2009-2010 season. They have consistently demonstrated a great skill in play making, and I have often been drawn into the illusion they create. Once again Company One brought together the elements of a great production to lift the words off the page and [...]