Gioia de Cari’s ‘Truth Values’ at Annenberg

Pity the woman with brains

Women continue to battle stereotypes to break into science and math. Gioia de Cari claims male chauvinism drove her out of MIT. But her one-woman show suggests that perhaps she really preferred a career on the stage.

Ilene Raymond Rush

Oct 06, 2013 · Articles · 2 minute read

‘Parade’ at the Arden

Leo Frank lives! (With a little help from Terrence Nolen)

Parade, the musical about the 1913 Leo Frank lynching was rightly considered a flawed work when it opened at Lincoln Center in 1998. Now Terrence Nolen and Jorge Cousineau have re-imagined it and added a radically new dimension that brings Frank’s tragic story to life as never before.

Steve Cohen

Oct 05, 2013 · Articles · 4 minute read

Jane Austen's ‘Emma’ at the Lantern

Jane Austen’s 21st-Century problem

If you love Jane Austen, you’ll love the Lantern’s lovely adaptation of Emma. But if Austen’s novels were force-fed to you in high school, you might gag. In our age of instant gratification and short attention spans, therein lies a cultural challenge.

Alaina Johns

Oct 01, 2013 · Articles · 4 minute read

Kafka’s ‘The Castle’ at FringeArts Festival

A Kafka who’s not Kafkaesque

Unlike Kafka’s The Trial, the protagonist in The Castle is no victim. He’s an ambitious fellow who might even be a stand-in for Kafka, or even the messiah. Or both.

Steve Cohen

Sep 28, 2013 · Articles · 3 minute read

The coming season: Awards or rewards?

Hooked on awards, or: What ever happened to word of mouth?

In today’s risk-averse theater climate, every new play or musical in the coming Philadelphia season boasts some sort of pedigree or award. Which raises an interesting question: Is there any play, playwright, actor or director on the planet who hasn’t won an award?

Naomi Orwin

Sep 24, 2013 · Articles · 4 minute read

‘The Rainmaker’ at People’s Light

Between pessimism and delusion in the Great American heartland

The Rainmaker, a compelling character study set on an Iowa farm during the Great Depression, lacks the psychological depth of Cather’s work, but it’s undeniably charming.

Bill Murphy

Sep 23, 2013 · Articles · 2 minute read

‘A Doll’s House’: the Geffers adaptation (2nd review)

A modern Nora, or just a confused one?

EgoPo’s adaptation of A Doll’s House casts a 14-year-old girl as Nora yet upgrades the subject matter to adult issues like money, sex, and physical abuse. What statement was Brenna Geffers trying to make?

Naomi Orwin

Sep 21, 2013 · Articles · 4 minute read

Bruce Graham’s ‘Any Given Monday’ in Wilmington

The urge to kill

Bruce Graham has cut about 12 minutes from his original 2010 production of Any Given Monday, his take on suburban infidelity and macho revenge. The tightened monologues and a new cast provide a warmer, less boorish, more reasoned glow.

Steve Cohen

Sep 21, 2013 · Articles · 2 minute read

Renegade’s ‘Bathtub Moby-Dick’ at FringeArts

Captain Ahab in South Philadelphia

Watching Ed Swidey as Captain Ahab in a South Philadelphia living room, I suddenly found myself fighting tears of recognition: Here was the father I never had, taking time to explain and illustrate for a child Melville's most famous masterpiece.

Henrik Eger

Sep 17, 2013 · Articles · 4 minute read

Matthew Charman’s ‘The Machine’ in New York

Man vs. machine

The historic 1997 chess match between Russia’s Garry Kasparov and an IBM computer is the stuff that modern tragedy is made of: It involves a noble protagonist who, due to a tragic flaw (being human), suffers his downfall.

Carol Rocamora

Sep 17, 2013 · Articles · 6 minute read