Tennessee Williams's 'Stairs to the Roof' (second review)

Is drama meant to be taken seriously?

What happens when you treat a dramatic play as farce? Lane Savadove’s production of an early Tennessee Williams play makes you wonder how other great playwrights would fare under his whimsical direction.

Naomi Orwin

Feb 17, 2015 · Articles · 4 minute read

Tennessee Williams’s ‘Stairs to the Roof’

Before Williams was Williams

Stairs to the Roof is early Tennessee Williams as you’ve never seen him — a wacky, surrealistic farce. Director Lane Savadove’s stylized physical movements manage to transform a simplistic script into sparkling entertainment.

Steve Cohen

Feb 16, 2015 · Articles · 2 minute read

Terrence McNally’s ‘Mothers and Sons’ at PTC (second review)

Fathers Know Best?

While the predictable, albeit slow, ascendancy of the mother’s acceptance of the situation seems to be the main thrust of the play, we also get a cinemascope review of the entire LGBT movement. For the straight person who doesn’t know much about gay history, this 101 overview might serve as the perfect seminar.

Thom Nickels

Feb 13, 2015 · Articles · 5 minute read

Terrence McNally’s ‘Mothers and Sons’ at PTC (first review)

Elephants in the room

Terrence McNally’s noble attempt to recognize the forgotten victims of the 1980s AIDS crisis is undermined by a shallow dramatic conflict.

Dan Rottenberg

Feb 12, 2015 · Articles · 5 minute read

Albee's 'A Delicate Balance' in New York

Dwelling in “the dark sadness”

No matter how dark an Albee play gets, there’s always the hope — however faint — that love will save the day, if only we are capable of it.

Carol Rocamora

Feb 10, 2015 · Articles · 5 minute read

'Under the Skin' at the Arden

What do we owe each other?

Which organ is more important, the kidney that cleanses our bodies of toxins or the heart, considered symbolically as the organ that connects us emotionally to each other? And would we really give up a part of ourselves to keep someone else alive?

Naomi Orwin

Feb 06, 2015 · Articles · 4 minute read

Tom Stoppard's 'The Hard Problem' at London's National Theatre

Solving a hard problem

In his first new work in almost a decade, Stoppard offers a 90-minute jewel that, in the tradition of theater of ideas, will challenge you to think as well as feel.

Carol Rocamora

Feb 03, 2015 · Articles · 4 minute read

‘The Dangerous House of Pretty Mbane’ at InterAct

Victims and fighters in “the new South Africa”

The world took in “the new South Africa” during the 2010 World Cup, but fatal injustice still infects a reinvented country in The Dangerous House of Pretty Mbane, a National New Play Network-commissioned premiere.

Alaina Johns

Jan 30, 2015 · Articles · 5 minute read

Four history plays in London

From monarchy to anarchy

In London, four powerful productions about the perils of those who rule.

Carol Rocamora

Jan 27, 2015 · Articles · 5 minute read

'Doubt: A Parable' at Lantern

A timely look at priestly abuse

Coinciding with the Vatican announcement of the head of a new appeal panel for sanctioned priests, John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt: A Parable opens at the Lantern Theater.

Kathryn Osenlund

Jan 27, 2015 · Articles · 5 minute read