Tennessee Williams’ semi-autobiographical memory play about a regretful Southern Belle and the miserable adult children who’ve grown up on her repetitive tales of questionable glory days is one of the playwright’s greatest poetic achievements and the piece that made his name when it premiered in 1944. Tom Wingfield’s nostalgic monologues that frame the flashback action […]
Typical off-West End, though you’d expect Soho Theatre to programme something more enticing (and I’m definitely enticed by Burning Doors). Writer Owen McCafferty and Director Adam Penford’s Unfaithful is of the barely-enough variety, the kind of play that chucks rough sex and swears around to raise the room temperature (in the dramatic sense, not in […]
Every other month, seven playwrights come together at The Tank in Manhattan to engage in a creative collaborative process that results in seventy minutes of artistry sharing common themes and elements. The structure of Rule of 7×7, the brainchild of writer and producer Brett Epstein, sounds simple – seven writers conceive of and produce seven […]
“Master Harold”… and the Boys This South African-set one-act by Athol Fugard takes a long time to get going but, once it does, it’s a gut punch. The idea is that James Daly’s charming brat Hally is super chummy with the two black men who work at his family’s diner (his parents are offstage dealing […]
The Adventures of the Black Girl in her Search for God In commissioning Lisa Codrington to adapt Shaw’s short story about a missionary-raised black girl searching for meaning in the African jungle, artistic director Jackie Maxwell kills a whole host of important birds with a single stone: 1- Find a memorable and entertaining one-act for […]
Runts School can be rough, but one can hope it’s never as rough as it is in Runts. Set in an English state school, it tells the story of a class of girls in a school filled with bullies, uncertainty and cat fights. It depicts the kind of school many parents dread because children don’t feel […]
A Doll’s House Recent Soulpepper Academy grad Katherine Gauthier is perfectly cast as Nora in this stylish, contemporary take on Ibsen’s story of a trapped, underestimated housewife. Pretty, poised and a little performative, Gauthier perfectly captures the meticulously put-together type of woman Nora is, especially in director Daniel Brooks’ insightfully modern vision. She’s at her […]
Millennials, like me, who graduated from high school in the mid 2000s are hovering around the life cornerstone of “30” – no longer able to blame bad decisions on youth and expected, perhaps, to embrace the responsibilities of an adult life.* For many, this time of life includes a journey home to attend one’s 10-year […]