Jack the Ripper is not a new tale; tracing back to the 19th century, Jack the Ripper has haunted and plagued the media and bedtime stories as an unsolved “murder of the century.” In fact, Jack the Ripper (can he ever be “Just Jack”?) was selected by the BBC History magazine as the worst Briton […]
Stupid F***ing Bird by Aaron Posner offered my first trip to the Apollinaire Theatre Company in Chelsea, Massachusetts. The play is billed as “sort of adapted from Chekhov’s The Seagull,” and, after seeing the play, I sort of agree. Chekhov’s The Seagull tells about the intersection between love and art, new and old forms, the […]
Last week, the Lowell House Opera presented the rarely-performed (and perhaps it should stay that way) opera Lakmé by Léo Delibes, directed by Roxanna Myhrym and music directed by Lidiya Yankovskaya. The Lowell House Opera bills itself as the longest continually performing opera company in New England. The opera is rough around the edges, despite […]
The Greater Boston area has seen its share of Rabbit Holes. The Umbrella (formerly the Emerson Umbrella) presented its own production of David Lindsay-Abaire’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play about what it means to grieve and how to cope with loss in our everyday lives. Becca (Allison McCann) and Howie (Randy Elkinson) are parents who lose their […]
Bridge Repertory Theater of Boston was a My Theatre favourite in 2013. With a strong introduction to the Boston scene with The Libertine, Bridge Rep has quickly made itself known as one of the more professional fringe theatres in Boston. Though I missed their Not Jenny, I had high expectations for this season. Their talent […]
Florencia en el Amazonas is a relatively unknown opera; it’s modern, it’s Spanish, it’s artsy. However, the Boston University College of Fine Arts School of Music Opera Institute and School of Theatre (wow, that’s a mouthful!) show that the production is reminiscent and in every way equal to the classics from which composer Daniel Catán […]
Characters in theatre almost always know more about themselves than audience members; the characters have lived in a fictional world before the play’s action. However, it’s a rare treat when an audience knows more about the play’s world and characters than the characters themselves. Such is Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along, an innovative musical (for […]
Good theatre moves you in profound and unexpected ways. However, good theatre is also good storytelling. Like children gathered around on the carpet for story hour, we flock to the theatre to be entertained with characters and stories which exceed our own little world. These stories open our minds to new circumstances, new stories, and […]