Coming up in Philly theater: Stormy marriages, star-crossed lovers, and tense classrooms

Happy New Year, Philadelphia theater lovers! By now, you’ve probably taken down your Christmas tree or safely stored your menorah. Or, if you’re like me, you’ll continuing enjoying your holiday decorations well into January — don’t judge! Whatever your speed, time waits for no one, and neither will the first crop of 2019 productions.

A real-life affair

Time is the central theme of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal, which Lantern Theater Company mounts from January 10 through February 17. Told in reverse chronological order, the 1978 drama follows a love triangle between Robert and Emma, a pair of married intellectuals, and their friend Jerry, with whom Emma conducts a long-term affair. Nobel laureate Pinter, who died in 2008, based the play on his own relationship with television host Joan Bakewell while both were married to other people. Lantern’s production features Geneviève Perrier, Jered McLenigan, and Gregory Isaac, under Kathryn MacMillan’s direction.

Star-crossed lovers and student-crossed teachers

Wilma Theater returns to Shakespeare for the first time in several seasons, staging Romeo and Juliet from January 15 through February 3. HotHouse company members Matteo Scammell and 2018 F. Otto Haas Award winner Taysha Canales play the star-crossed lovers, under Blanka Zizka’s direction. The cast also includes company members Steven Rishard, Lindsay Smiling, and Anthony Martinez-Briggs, among others. The Wilma is sure to put its own unique spin on this oft-performed classic.

Direct from New York, McCarter Theatre Center hosts the regional premiere of Eleanor Burgess’s The Niceties (January 11 through February 10), a searing look at academic freedom, privilege, and cultural competency. A co-production of McCarter, Manhattan Theatre Club, and Boston’s Huntington Theatre, this look at the shifting balance between teacher and student echoes David Mamet’s Oleanna, which also arrives locally this month at Walnut Street Theatre’s Independence Studio on 3 (January 15 through February 17).

Lynn Nottage and Kash Goins

Lynn Nottage’s Sweat currently holds the #2 spot on American Theatre magazine’s list of most-produced plays in the country. Need proof? Scarcely two months have passed since Philadelphia Theatre Company closed their production in Center City, and Nottage’s tale of economic anxiety in Reading, Pennsylvania, is already resurfacing at Malvern’s People’s Light and Theatre Company (January 16 through February 17). Those who saw the prior production might want to make the trip in order to compare and contrast.

Arden Theatre Company continues its investment in local playwright and actor Kash Goins. After hosting his company, GoKash OnSTAGE, in a residency last season, the Arden remounts his 74 Seconds… to Judgment under their own auspices (January 17 through March 3). The play takes a ripped-from-the-headlines approach to modern questions about racist violence and the criminal justice system at large. The cast includes Goins himself, alongside Julianna Zinkel, Kala Moses Baxter, Peter Bisgaier, Dan Hodge, and Travoye Joiner. Amina Robinson, who staged Theatre Horizon’s thrilling Color Purple, directs.

Star power at Awake and Sing!

Clifford Odets (1906-1963) was born in Philadelphia and, for a period in the ‘30s and ‘40s, was considered one of the premier playwrights in America. His stature has diminished somewhat in the ensuing decades — a matter Quintessence Theatre Group hopes to correct with their production of Awake and Sing! (January 23 through February 17). Set against the backdrop of the Depression, the drama blends realism and poetry in telling the story of a struggling Jewish family with differing views of the American Dream. The cast includes film, television, and stage legend Lawrence Pressman as the aging patriarch. I was a huge fan of the Tony-winning Broadway revival of Awake and Sing! that Lincoln Center Theater produced in 2006, and I’m looking forward to visiting the play afresh.