Tom Stoppard’s brilliant play was part of Theatre@First’s 10th anniversary. This was only the second play I’ve seen by Theatre@First, but so far I’m not impressed (I wasn’t formally reviewing the other production so it can live on in nameless infamy). Now, it’s not the company’s fault that I wasn’t impressed, they did nothing explicitly […]
Kenneth Lonergan’s new play, This is Our Youth is a bit of a misnomer – my youth was not even remotely like the drug-fueled, neglectful, and privileged life of Warren Straub (portrayed by Michael Cera) and Dennis Ziegler (portrayed by Kieran Culkin). If Holden Caulfield had grown up on the Upper West Side in the […]
I can’t appreciate Cloud 9. Playwright Caryl Churchill wears on my patience whenever I see her work performed (though I like reading her plays), and Cloud 9 proved to be a humorous but grating variation on the same pattern. The Boston Conservatory student-actors achieved mixed results, but, overall, the production felt tedious, lacking some of […]
Team Kat Goes on Retreat Playwright/director Kat Sandler’s latest one-act at the Storefront Theatre is a wackier and more wildly comedic entry into her ever-expanding canon of thoughtful, witty work. The story of four interns sent on a camping retreat to compete for a single job at a vague but powerful company, Retreat is a […]
The audience enters the Arsenal Center Black Box, and is instantly greeted with music. Faraz Firoozabadi (percussion), Stephen J. Lamb (guitar), and Jacques Pardo (composer and sound designer), set the mood as we prepare to enter Iraq, the real and reimagined space offered by Amir Al-Azraki in Waiting for Gilgamesh: Scenes from Iraq, directed by […]
In 1926, Bertolt Brecht, the innovative German theatre director (and playwright, and theorist), spoke about the future of theatre, saying simply, “we pin our hopes to the sporting public.” Imaging traditional theatre as a sinking ship, he dreamed of a world where people get as excited about theatre as they do about, say, a basketball […]
I had the best seat in the house, smack-dab in the middle of the first row, mezzanine level. I surveyed the scene from my perch: non-threatening pastels (light brown, cream, orange tones), a few armchairs and lamps, a large, slightly faded rug beneath the coffee table in the center of the large room. The Drayton […]
The Soulpepper Academy is one of the most consistent breeding grounds for up and coming theatre artists in the country. Albert Schultz’s proven eye for talent and an excellent combination of training and mentorship throughout the 2-year program has resulted in a slew of promising players class after class. The program keeps expanding (there are […]