"The History Boys' at the Arden (2nd review)

Is there an acoustician in the house?

Alan Bennett's The History Boys is a witty play about the value of education and a paean to the joys of language. But for all the choreographic staging and careful attention to accents in the Arden's current production, the actors' words themselves are often inaudible.

Steve Cohen

Oct 13, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read

'Nathan the Wise' at People's Light (2nd review)

When a playwright sticks his neck out

Gotthold Lessing's Nathan the Wise is an 18th-Century brotherhood plea that flunks most standard tests of drama and betrays little realistic knowledge of Jews, Muslims and even Christians. Its author's utopian idealism renders it fascinating nevertheless.

Steve Cohen

Oct 10, 2009 · Articles · 5 minute read

Beckett's "Happy Days' by the Lantern (3rd review)

Humanity's last gasp

A play should offer us more than what we see. The longer the two of us have spent talking about Happy Days— arguing about it, thinking about it— the richer it has become. That's what distinguishes Beckett's work from Lorenzo Pisoni's Humor Abuse.

Pamela Riley

Oct 08, 2009 · Articles · 6 minute read

"First Day of School' by 1812 Productions

Sex and the married parent

What do parents do when they've packed the kids off to school? They fool around, yes, but Billy Aronson's sophisticated sex farce never loses its grasp on reality, and a first-rate cast of comic actors expertly builds a sense of cumulative ridiculousness.

Dan Rottenberg

Oct 08, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read

"The History Boys' at the Arden (1st review)

Don't know much about history…

Beyond an exceptional acting ensemble, in The History Boys the Arden stages a sharp intellectual prep-school drama that cuts to the core of if, how and why a society should value art, culture, education and learning.

Jim Rutter

Oct 06, 2009 · Articles · 3 minute read

Beckett's "Happy Days' by the Lantern (2nd review)

The limits of human consciousness

The Lantern Theater's season is off to a good start with David O'Connor's production of Beckett's Happy Days, featuring Mary Elizabeth Scallen as Winnie. This inexhaustible role can never be fully realized in any performance, but Scallen projects her battered dignity and, in the play's second act, creates a memorable picture of human consciousness at the end of its tether.

Robert Zaller

Oct 03, 2009 · Articles · 6 minute read

"Two Unrelated Plays By Mamet' in New York

Staccato rhythms and male competition, or: David Mamet phones it in

Four plays by David Mamet open in New York this fall, three of them new. Of the first two, School is a lame skit about recycling, and Keep Your Pantheon offers dismaying evidence that the great Mamet isn't above recycling old material himself.

Toby Zinman

Oct 02, 2009 · Articles · 3 minute read

Beckett's "Happy Days' by Lantern Theater (1st review)

When only words remain

In Lantern's production of Beckett's Happy Days, the remarkable Mary Elizabeth Scallen somehow manages to demonstrate simultaneously both the importance and the irrelevance of words. But what words!

Dan Rottenberg

Oct 02, 2009 · Articles · 4 minute read

Pisoni's "Humor Abuse' at PTC (1st review)

Son of Pagliacci

To win the love of his clown father— as well as the audience— Lorenzo Pisoni drives his body through every pratfall in the standard clowning handbook. The result is exhausting.

Dan Rottenberg

Oct 01, 2009 · Articles · 1 minute read

"Hermitage' at Philadelphia Fringe Festival

Life in an urban attic

New York's legendary Collyer brothers hoarded 180 tons of materials in their Harlem mansion by the time of their deaths in 1947. Frederick Anderson's Hermitage offers a sympathetic view of two men who withdraw psychologically as their urban neighborhood changes demographically.

Jonathan M. Stein

Sep 29, 2009 · Articles · 2 minute read