Tag Archives: Brian O’Keefe
Dreams Form The Core Of Dramaworks’ Intimate Apparel
Lynn Nottage’s incisive Intimate Apparel explores a dozen themes simultaneously and all viewed through the prism of race at the turn of the century. But this Palm Beach Dramaworks edition finds a commonality among all of the above: the hope and fear and frustration connected to dreams deferred and dreams realized.
A Bloody Good Sweeney Todd Erupts At PB Dramaworks
Homicidal rage against a corrupt world spews into the audience in Palm Beach Dramaworks’ Sweeney Todd. But its singular spin is that the serial throat-slitting barber does not start as a vengeance-obsessed fiend. It it adds a dimension of, not forgiveness, but compassion to this cross between gleeful Grand Guignol and merciless condemnation of socio-economic inequity.
The Storm-Tossed Seek Hope And Salvation In Dramawork’s The Night Of The Iguana
The emotional histrionics and pyrotechnic acting in the first act notwithstanding, it’s the quiet poignant moments of compassion and connection in the second act that are the most deeply affecting in Palm Beach Dramaworks’ skillful resurrection of Tennessee Williams’ The Night of the Iguana.
Bravura Lion In Winter Is Family Battle Royal As Blood Sport
To summarize The Lion in Winter as a drama about a dysfunctional family is to facilely devalue this examination of just how base the human animal can be in the grip of power and ambition. Director William Hayes and a fine cast make the most of the acerbic gallows humor in Palm Beach Dramaworks’ bravura production, but they also build Goldman’s underlying case for the less than laudable aspects of our nature.