Rick Chason

It’s refreshing to see a show like Spring Awakening get so much play in Boston area theaters. Even ten years ago, our theater scene would never have so accepted a musical so open about adolescent sexuality that uses actual teenagers in overtly-sexualized dramatic scenes. The Company Theatre of Norwell, the one of the few semi-professional […]

  Rick Chason

I’m surprised that American theater companies so rarely perform the plays of Roland Schimmelpfennig. Schimmelpfennig (I believe it’s pronounced “sha-ba-da-va-da”) is one of Germany’s most popular and acclaimed…

  Rick Chason

Go see this play. Do it. Buy a ticket right now. People throw around the word “must-see” a lot with new and exciting media, but Speakeasy’s production of Samuel D. Hunter’s latest off-Broadway tour de force, The Whale is something every serious Boston theatergoer should try to see before it closes on April 5. It […]

It’s funny how once in a while a drama can feel more timely a few years after its premiere. Sometimes it takes a theater culture some time to acclimate itself to an unusual new work. Sometimes current events force us to look at a play with a new social outlook. Zeitgeist Stage’s production of Alan […]

Playwrights want to be profound. One of the main reasons that we go to the theater is to experience drama so palpable that we become engaged enough to take in complex philosophical ideas and unique perspectives on the human experience. So, it makes sense that so many playwrights try to fill every line of dialogue […]

  Rick Chason

I’d been looking forward to the Nora Theatre Company’s production of Terry Johnson’s Insignificance at Central Square Theater for months. Two years ago, the company produced one of my favorite plays I’ve yet seen in Boston, Johnson’s Hysteria. That play, about a historical meeting between Sigmund Freud and Salvador Dali, was a wit-filled romp that […]