'Antigone' and 'Metamorphoses'

A few words about dramatic language

When watching classic plays translated from other languages, consider what is lost and how much our contemporary mindset and values change meaning.

AJ Sabatini

Oct 26, 2015 · Articles · 6 minute read

Bruce Graham’s ‘Rizzo’ at Theatre Exile (third review)

The real Frank Rizzo, as I knew him

The good and the bad of Frank Rizzo the man are both there in Bruce Graham's Rizzo. But the play barely hints at the terrifying ugly of the man and some members of his police force, which I witnessed firsthand.

SaraKay Smullens

Oct 26, 2015 · Articles · 5 minute read

Bruce Graham’s ‘Rizzo’ by Theatre Exile (second review)

Sound and fury, signifying . . . what?

Some people worshipped Frank Rizzo, Philadelphia’s combative mayor in the 1970s. Some people detested him. What else is new?

Dan Rottenberg

Oct 23, 2015 · Articles · 6 minute read

Bruce Graham's 'Rizzo' at Theatre Exile

Rizzo Redux

Theatre Exile and playwright Bruce Graham bring a controversial Philadelphia figure back to pulsating life.

Carol Rocamora

Oct 22, 2015 · Articles · 4 minute read

Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre's 'Taming of the Shrew'

A shrew not tamed, but understood

Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre's Taming of the Shrew shows a keen understanding of the play's intentions — and is a lot of fun, too.

Mark Cofta

Oct 20, 2015 · Articles · 4 minute read

'Romeo and Juliet' and 'The Mandrake' at Quintessence

When the sum is greater than the parts

Together, Romeo and Juliet and The Mandrake are a treatise on desire: how it shapes our lives, how it brings out the best and worst in us, and how social appearance and responsibility can confound our hearts.

Mark Cofta

Oct 20, 2015 · Articles · 3 minute read

George & Co.'s 'Holden' at FringeArts

Holden holds on, provides no answers

In Holden, a theater piece devised by George & Co., the staging is expert, but portrays a condition more than a story.

Mark Cofta

Oct 19, 2015 · Articles · 2 minute read

'Auctioning the Ainsleys' at People's Light

A silly comedy

Like The Glass Menagerie, Auctioning the Ainsleys is about a dysfunctional family, but Laura Schellhardt’s play about memory presents these grown children in a comic light.

Frank Burd

Oct 19, 2015 · Articles · 3 minute read

Tyson and Jones in 'The Gin Game'

Ageism in the theater? Don't believe it

Cicely Tyson (90) and James Earl Jones (84) are acting up a storm on Broadway. And they’re not the only ones.

Carol Rocamora

Oct 19, 2015 · Articles · 3 minute read

Attis Theatre's 'Antigone' at the Wilma (second review)

From Greece with agony

The emotional scale of the Attis Theatre production of Antigone is outsized and overwrought, but that’s the nature of war and tragedy and the Greeks didn’t sugarcoat it.

Richard da Silva

Oct 17, 2015 · Articles · 4 minute read