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The wellspring of self-expression. (Photos by Alexander Iziliaev)

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

What was before the beginning

It’s not often American audiences can experience the concentrated power of this kind of theater, which vitally restores to its earliest classics a sense of the force they must have had for their original audiences, while opening them, too, for our own secular, desacralized world.

Robert Zaller

Oct 17, 2015 Articles 5 minute read

Confronting ancient prejudices. (Photo by Mark Garvin)

Ayad Akhtar’s ‘Disgraced’ by Philadelphia Theatre Company (second review)

An overdue conversation

Does brutality lie just beneath the surface of civilization? Can we ever deny our heritage, or does it forever define us? And why do we need to hit women to express our rage?

Naomi Orwin

Oct 16, 2015 Articles 4 minute read

Vahdat (left), Magrath, Graney, Kelly: Enmities bubbling to the surface. (Photo by Mark Garvin)

Ayad Akhtar’s ‘Disgraced’ by Philadelphia Theatre Company (first review)

Is there a therapist in the house?

Disgraced, Ayad Akhtar’s insightful and compelling drama of American Muslim anger, astutely mines the power of ancient prejudices but overlooks the countervailing power of human resilience.

Dan Rottenberg

Oct 15, 2015 Articles 5 minute read

They become whoever we are told they are: Wood, Johnson, and Ngo. (Photo by Mark Garvin)

'Shipwrecked! An Entertainment' by Donald Margulies

The lies we tell

Must everything be truth, or are we prepared to indulge fantastical stories just because they entertain? Or does believing fantasies sometimes have consequences?

Naomi Orwin

Oct 13, 2015 Articles 3 minute read

Rosalie (Samia Merritt, fourth from left) confronts Mary (Maggie Johnson, left). (Photo by Dave Sarrafian)

EgoPo's 'Children's Hour' by Lillian Hellman

A lie that is partially true

The issues at the heart of Lillian Hellman’s Children’s Hour still resonate today, 80 years after the play was first produced. But what matters more — the hint of illicit love, or the choice to live on one’s own terms instead of settling for marriage?

Naomi Orwin

Oct 13, 2015 Articles 4 minute read

Mary (Corinna Burns) tells it like it is in “Hooked!” (photo by Katie Reing)

Inis Nua's 'Hooked!' at Fergie's Pub

We're hooked on Hooked!

Inis Nua's 12th season begins with Hooked!, a charming site-specific comedy at Fergie's Pub.

Mark Cofta

Oct 12, 2015 Articles 2 minute read

Turned to gold: Leigha Kato as Midas’s Daughter. (Photo by Mark Garvin)

Mary Zimmerman's 'Metamorphoses' at the Arden (second review)

Lessons about love from long ago, and a swimming pool

Myths entertain us and teach us lessons about life and love. Setting them in and around a pool of water emphasizes their relationship to the subconscious and challenges us to look for deeper meanings. But why do so many plays use water on stage?

Naomi Orwin

Oct 12, 2015 Articles 4 minute read

A sweet cacophony of the yearnings of men and women: Krista Apple-Hodge as Psyche and Brandon Pierce as Eros. (Photo by Mark Garvin)

Mary Zimmerman's 'Metamorphoses' at the Arden (first review)

Transforming Ovid into a fascinating night of theater

I thought I had an inkling of what Metamorphoses was about. Wasn’t that the title of a book by Kafka about a man who wakes up one morning to discover he’s transformed into an insect? Well, that is not this show.

Frank Burd

Oct 12, 2015 Articles 3 minute read