ghosts
As a result of playwright Mfoniso Udofia’s profound interest in the African Diaspora, perhaps no fictional couple in the recent history of Off-Broadway theatre have had their histories more parsed than Nsikan Disciple Ufot and his wife Abasiama Ekpeyong Ufot. “runboyrun” and “In Old Age,” currently running at New York Theatre Workshop, are the third and eighth plays in Mfoniso…
In a celebratory move uptown to the theater district, the Broadway Bound Theatre Festival, celebrating its third year in Manhattan, has announced its 2019 season lineup at Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street. In just three short years BBTF has evolved into an elevated and sophisticated theatre festival, upping the ante and the exposure for its participating playwrights, but still…
August Strindberg’s naturalism and themes transfer brilliantly from his “Miss Julie” to Yaël Farber’s adaptation of Strindberg’s classic. Farber’s “Mies Julie” is currently running at Classic Stage Company in repertory with the Conor McPherson’s adaptation of Strindberg’s “The Dance of Death.” Like the 1985 stage version of “Miss Julie” at Cape Town’s Baxter Theatre, Mr. Farber’s 2012 adaptation takes place…
In this revival of “Thom Pain (based on nothing)” at The Pershing Square Signature Center’s Irene Diamond Stage, Will Eno steps over, under, and in between the resting places – and the writing desks – of the literary canon’s most prominent surrealist writers of the past and present. Eno seems to stop there to chat, listen, tremble (who wouldn’t), and…
Dan O’Brien’s “The Body of an American,” currently running at Primary Stages at the Cherry Lane Theatre, is oddly reminiscent of Robert M. Pirsig’s 1974 novel “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values.” Discussions between the play’s characters – the main characters Dan (Michael Crane) and Paul (Michael Cumpsty) – and secondary characters (also played by…
With only one glitch (more about that later in the review), Matthew Lopez’s “The Legend of Georgia McBride” is a high-energy, high-octane song and dance extravaganza that plays with exotic and explosive exuberance and verve on the stage of the Lucille Lortel Theatre in Manhattan’s West Village. It is a heartwarming story of courage and acceptance and it is about…
“No, there was another world that Tennessee Williams knew about, a universe filled with special people who didn’t want to be a part of this dreary conformist life that I was told I had to join.” (John Waters, “The Kindness of a Stranger,” New York Times, November 19, 2006) 59E59 Theater’s critically acclaimed 5A Series begins the 2015-2015 Season with…
“I would hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo, and if an echo sounded, no matter how faintly, I would send other words to tell, to march, to fight, to create a sense of hunger for life that gnaws in us all.” Richard Wright, “Black Boy” (1945) With rhythms more reminiscent of song than spoken word, Dael…
My, the immersive theatre has come a long way. From its ‘haunted house’ origins, this creepy interactive genre spawned such cult classic as”Sleep No More” and its spooky successor “Then She Fell.” Writer/Director Ava Lee Scott has nudged the form further with ‘Serenade’ a haunting, Gothic musical inspired by the works of Edgar Allen Poe. The audience begins the show…
“Give me my flowers/While I yet live/So that I, I, can see the beauty/That they bring.” – James Cleveland In 1994, just before the Thanksgiving turkey is carved and served, Calvin (Larry Powell) packs his things, says good-bye to Eva (Sharon Washington) and his sister Tonya (Sheria Irving) and leaves his Pittsburgh house and home. Sexually abused by his stepfather…