Theater

2679 results
Page 134
Childs: Doing standup at 90? (Photo: Mark Garvin.)

Jennifer Childs’s ‘I Will Not Go Gently’ (2nd review)

Comedy as an antidote for aging

In I Will Not Go Gently, Jennifer Childs provides plenty of laughs about aging without ever addressing the critical question: How do you do it well?
Naomi Orwin

Naomi Orwin

Articles 3 minute read
Childs: Obscurity is just around the corner? (Photo: Mark Garvin.)

Jennifer Childs’s ‘I Will Not Go Gently’ (1st review)

Am I still relevant?

Aging is tough, but it beats the alternative. So goes the old joke. Jennifer Childs’s latest play and Ellensue Gross’s paintings provide fresher responses.
Steve Cohen

Steve Cohen

Articles 3 minute read

Aeschylus’s ‘The Eumenides’ at the Penn Museum

A hot time in the old tomb

In The Eumenides, Aeschylus first captured that moment when pre-literate Greeks first turned away from revenge and looked instead to the goddess Athena for wisdom, justice and reason. It’s not a bad recipe for our present age of fear and anger.
Helen Buttel

Helen Buttel

Articles 5 minute read
Heflin, Matarrese, Tague, Ernst: Artificial barriers.

Ayckbourn’s ‘Things We Do For Love’ in Delaware

An absurdist with a grasp of real life

Think Alan Ayckbourn is the English Neil Simon? Think again. He's more like the English Anton Chekhov.
Mark Cofta

Mark Cofta

Articles 3 minute read
Would you believe last night they did 'Macbeth'? (Photo: Kendall Whitehouse.)

Shakespeare Theatre’s ‘Twelfth Night’

The Bard turned upside down

Seen together in repertory, Shakespeare’s romantic comedy Twelfth Night and the tragic Macbeth are greater than the sum of their parts.
Mark Cofta

Mark Cofta

Articles 3 minute read
Tuomanen (left), Anthony, Beschler: No spoiler alert needed. (Photo: Dave Sarrafian.)

Sophie Treadwell’s ‘Machinal’ by EgoPo (2nd review)

. . . But roses have thorns

In 1the 1920s the repressed protagonist of Machinal murdered her husband. Today’s women have found healthier outlets for their frustrations.
Naomi Orwin

Naomi Orwin

Articles 3 minute read
Murder as an antidote for quiet desperation. (Illustration for BSR by Mike Jackson of alrightmike.com)

Sophie Treadwell’s ‘Machinal’ by EgoPo (1st review)

Ground down by the urban machine

After nearly 90 years, Sophie Treadwell’s Machinal still packs its Expressionist message about the dehumanization of people — especially women — in a mechanized society.
Robert Zaller Illustration by Mike Jackson

Robert Zallerand Illustration by Mike Jackson

Articles 5 minute read
Langella confronts dementia in 'The Father.'

‘The Father’ and ‘Blackbird’ on Broadway

Overdosing on reality

Some plays are too traumatic to sit through. I found myself in that bind last week, watching The Father and Blackbird— both well written and directed, both powerfully performed, both dealing with agonizing subjects.

Carol Rocamora

Articles 5 minute read
Kahn, Capper: Shaking with ambition. (Photo: Kendall Whitehouse.)

Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre’s ‘Macbeth’

He cracks, she runs down

Carmen Kahn’s rousing yet intimate and nuanced production of Macbeth reminds us that there’s a human story beneath Shakespeare’s famous words.
Mark Cofta

Mark Cofta

Articles 3 minute read
Coffman (on top), Rhinehart: If the TV isn't working... (Photo: T. Charles Erickson.)

Laura Eason’s ‘Sex with Strangers’ by PTC (2nd review)

Sex with Strangers: Dangerous, or boring?

Two people meet cute, but the only thing duller than their sex is their talk in Laura Eason's Sex with Strangers.
Mark Cofta

Mark Cofta

Articles 3 minute read