Reviews
The Opponent Is In Ourselves at African Heritage Cultural Center
One of the great truisms of human nature is that often our greatest opponent is ourselves. So while the drama The Opponent is set in a boxing ring where an young fighter and his trainer spar physically and verbally, it’s their own flaws that provide adversaries that they cannot best.
In Fine Performance, Misery’s Annie Wilkes May Seem More Familiar Today Than You Recall
An unintended resonance echoes in Empire Stage’s production of Misery that Stephen King likely did not quite foresee. In a world where some people steadfastly, even violently believe whatever they want to believe, somewhere Annie Wilkes is shrugging and asking “What’s your point?”
Main Street Players’ Topdog/Underdog Is Slow Motion Shattering Drama
Main Street Players’ version of Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog rewards the patient patron is watching a slow-motion shattering of two brothers struggling with institutionalized racism, poverty, sibling rivalry, and troubled pasts stretching from childhood to last week.
Theatre Lab’s ‘Red Riding Hood’ Entertains More than Just Kids
So Allison Gregory’s Red Riding Hood is a delightful hoot in which Theatre Lab has mounted a production meant to enrapture young theatergoers, but also liberally peppered with jokes, asides and other humor that only the adults will understand.
Recreating A Family is Central to Larsen’s Dramedy “The Actors”
Savor an unqualified success with playwright-actor Ronnie Larsen’s The Actors. Copious laughs dominate a seemingly silly sit-com situation, but they recede (though never disappear) as the human angst underneath keeps poking toward the surface until it becomes the reason for the evening.
Bent’s Horrors Go Beyond Homicidal Homophobia; Asks What Would You Do If Targeted
Bent deserves honor for putting recognizable human beings amid Hitler’s decimation of homosexuals during the Holocaust – and re-reminding the public of this horror. But rising above the gender topicality of Sherman’s script in Empire Stage’s uneven, but ultimately scorching production are universal issues about the challenge of preserving yourself basic humanity in such times.
Can’t Tell You Why, But Savor ‘Now and Then’ When You Can
I am begging every critic colleague, everyone who has seen Actors’ Playhouse’s Now and Then to NOT give away anything! One of the many pleasures in this drama laced with humor is watching the story unfold bit by bit, knowing something is going on underneath but enjoying how layers are peeled away by a quartet of superb actors and director.
Diversity Inside Identity Is Central Issue In Fade At GableStage
Fade predictably indicts talent succumbing to ambition, but what’s special is how the verbally intense script infuses an insider’s incisive depiction of a diversity within modern Latinx life in a predominantly Anglo society.
‘one in two’ is More Updated Report in the War on HIV/AIDS
More current than the classic AIDS plays written three decades ago, Donja R. Love’s ‘one in two’ examines the challenges of with HIV-positive when talk shows have ads for pills that make the virus “undetectable” and restore the freedom to have casual sex or make love.
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