David E. MorenoSan Francisco,
“Capitalism excels at innovation but fails at maintenance.”
There is something queer about “Sink”, a political purge in heels, a ritualized communal healing, a street-smart shamanic journey. Something remarkable about how its vague threads, three distinct segments, loosely ...
A 77-year-old Lillian Hellman play sounds the alarm (again).
Emily S. MendelBerkeley,
Lillian Hellman (1905 –1984), celebrated author and left-wing political activist, would be both pleased and saddened that her 1940 play is being applauded across the country 77 years after it was written — pleased, of course, that her ...
Emily S. MendelBerkeley,
TheatreFirst has commissioned 12 enlivening and exhilarating short plays by outstanding playwrights that are designed to provoke thought, discussion and action. All the pieces in “Participants” share the didactic theme of exploring society’s reaction to our current social and political ...
Emily S. MendelBerkeley,
While many theatre companies put on undemanding feel-good musical shows for the holidays, leave it to Shotgun Players to produce the lauded “Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets,” an avant-garde expressionist take on a German folktale ...
Karen WeinsteinLos Angeles,
Sometimes a pot shot is just too easy. Sometimes it lands right on the bull’s eye. “Something Rotten,” the title of the new musical at the Ahmanson, offers a quiver full of justifications for a critic to lay into it. ...
Nancy S. BishopChicago,
Steppenwolf Theatre’s world premiere of The Minutes by Tracy Letts takes place during a small town city council meeting. It’s a satire of small-town politics, individual grievances and so much more. Viewed totally, it’s an example of theater at its ...
Lynne FriedmannSan Diego,
In 1947, publication of “The Diary of Anne Frank” put a face on the Holocaust. Seventy years later, the Frank family saga continues to resonate as political debates about refugee resettlement currently affect an estimated 65 million people worldwide.
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Emily S. MendelBerkeley,
Although it’s over 100 years since the first African-American boxer, Jack Johnson, won the world heavyweight boxing championship in a fight with James L. Jeffries, the white retired champion, the repercussions continue to be heard. The race riots, injuries and ...
A titillating look at life in the bad old 19th century.
Nancy S. BishopChicago,
It’s a woman’s play, about an era when women’s physical and emotional needs and desires were not only misunderstood, but completely ignored. Sarah Ruhl’s "In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play" is a charming and titillating look at ...
Nancy S. BishopChicago,
Trap Door Theatre is staging an expressionistic, phantasmagorical tale of eastern European drama. Their new production, "Occidental Express," by Romanian-born playwright Matei Visniec, is a sometimes wacky, often chilling, always poetic meditation on war, borders, homeland and identity. The play ...
