Theater

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Page 182
Honor and courage, yes; physical prowess, no.

Attis Theater's 'Ajax, the madness' at the Wilma (1st review)

The frenzy of war, then and now

In Ajax, the madness, Theodoros Terzopoulos strips down the Ajax legend from Homer's Iliad and the Sophocles tragedy to its barest essentials, probing the roots of violence that underlie war. For Philadelphia, it was a rare opportunity to experience first-rate experimental theater.
Robert Zaller

Robert Zaller

Articles 8 minute read
Goosebumps: Is truth scarier than fantasy?

'Paperback Dreadful' at FringeArts Festival

Beyond Goosebumps: R.L. Stine gets his just desserts

What American kid of the ‘90s wasn't captivated by R.L. Stine's spine-tingling Goosebumps books, with their monstrous apparitions and sinister wishes granted? This send-up of Stine ventures a step further to focus on the real traumas of childhood.
Alaina Johns

Alaina Johns

Articles 3 minute read
Cutting edge, or same old same old?

Pig Iron's "Pay Up' at the FringeArts Festival (2nd review)

Pay Up again (for a show you've seen before)

Pig Iron's hilarious/heartbreaking exploration of how money affects us hasn't changed much since 2005. That's because, director Dan Rothenberg insists, things haven't changed much since then. I beg to disagree.
Alaina Johns

Alaina Johns

Articles 4 minute read
Much ado about coffee.

Jo StrÓ¸mgren Kompani's "The Society' at FringeArts

Beyond Monty Python

In barely an hour, director/choreographer Jo StrÓ¸mgren and his three gifted dancer/actors provide the most lucid, insightful— and funniest— overview of isolationism and global conflict that you're likely to find today.

Carol Rocamora

Articles 3 minute read
Plummer (left), Dourif: Exhausted and deluded, too. (Photo: Carol Rosegg.)

Tennessee Williams's "Two Character Play'

A great playwright's dismaying final chapter

The Two Character Play is an agonizing glimpse into the darkness of Tennessee Williams's soul in decline. And yet I can't get the image of the playwright's smiling face out of my mind.

Carol Rocamora

Articles 4 minute read
What would you do with a fistful of dollars? (Photo: Jacques-Jean Tiziou.)

Pig Iron's "Pay Up' at the FringeArts Festival (1st review)

The uses and abuses of money, in one bizarre hour

The trouble with most “immersive theater” is that you remember the form rather than the content. Pig Iron's Pay Up, by contrast, is a razor-sharp, insightful investigation of how humans (and even animals) interact when it comes to money.

Carol Rocamora

Articles 4 minute read
'The Sea Plays': Drinking, death and Eugene O'Neill in a single night.

A man's guide to the 2013 Fringe Arts Festival

No music or feelings, please: A man's guide to the Fringe Arts Festival

Men may dominate the theater world, but women dominate the audience. So how can a male theatergoer enjoy this month's Fringe Festival? By choosing carefully and relying on the expert guidance of my weightlifting teammates and drinking buddies.
Jim Rutter

Jim Rutter

Articles 4 minute read

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Mauckingbird's "Importance of Being Earnest'

Oscar Wilde gets the ‘post-gay' treatment

Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest is a Victorian comedy about men who lead double lives. The Mauckingbird Theatre Company's “post-gay” production overlooks Wilde's motivation for raising such a theme in the first place.
Judy Weightman

Judy Weightman

Articles 4 minute read
Kokkinou as Hecuba: Awaiting enslavement, or worse.

'The Trojan Women' in 21st-Century Greece

Calling Donald Rumsfeld, or: What war means

With The Trojan Women, Euripides may have written the most powerful anti-war play ever. It has lost none of its relevance: In the fine recent production in Athens, the parallels to the siege Greece is under today from predatory lenders were not far under the surface.
Robert Zaller

Robert Zaller

Articles 8 minute read
McGlaughlin (left), Anthony: Love-hate relationship.

Shakespeare Festival's "Two Noble Kinsmen'

The Bard's last gasp

Shakespeare's last play is rarely performed, and for good reason: The Bard was paying his dues and departing with a whimper when he wrote The Two Noble Kinsmen. Still, it's worth seeing, if only for its clues to the homosexuality of Shakespeare's patron, King James I.
Steve Cohen

Steve Cohen

Articles 4 minute read