More “Of Mice and Men” than “Orphans,” “Yen,” currently playing at MCC Theater at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, dives headlong into the miasma of dysfunctional families without abandon and lands in a matrix of enduring questions that British playwright Anna Jordan decides not to answer in this play that makes its way from a successful run at the Royal Exchange…
Legend has it that on May Eve all sorts of sorcery abounds in the country sides of Ireland. That is certainly the case on Crackskull Road somewhere in Dublin 2 on the April 30 in question in Honor Molloy’s delightful psychological thriller “Crackskull Road” currently playing at Irish Rep Theatre. For eighty riveting minutes, the complex Morrigan family system splays…
“Do you have what you need? Do you need what you have?” – Geoff Sobelle The audience enters the New York Theatre Workshop into a vast display of “stuff” up for viewing, exploring, opening, sharing, moving around, and engaging with. And there is plenty to explore: lamps of all sizes and shapes; small boats filled with boxes suspended from the…
For a brief time in Tanya Saracho’s “Fade,” currently playing at Primary Stages at the Cherry Lane Theatre, the lines between class and status fade as Mexican-born script writer Lucia (Annie Dow) and American-born Chicano custodian Abel (Eddie Martinez) seem to drop their guards and allow their “similarities” to overshadow their “differences.” Abel “forgives” Lucia for her assumptions when he…
“An Orange Julius. That’s what I want.” – Julius Basil Kreimendahl’s “Orange Julius” is a memory play. Narrated by Nut (Jess Barbagallo), the play defies space and time to tell the complex story of the narrator’s relationship with their estranged father Julius (Stephen Payne) a Vietnam War Veteran dying from cancer caused by exposure on the battlefield to the herbicide…
When sparring, couples often find themselves deadlocked and unable to move forward in therapy. When children have difficulty sharing the uncomfortable scenarios being played out in their lives, they often turn to silence as a coping mechanism. Sometimes, therapists use puppets to allow their patients to express significant uncomfortable feelings. The theatre has also used puppets to say things it…
If a single observation applies to the four plays in the 2017 “LaBute New Theater Festival” it is, there is nothing new here, nothing thought-provoking, nothing that raises rich enduring questions. And that is unfortunate given the status of the playwrights and the actors involved in this important Festival. Kel Haney directs Neil LaBute’s “What Happens in Vegas” with efficiency….
Adapted from the play “Le Menteur” by Pierre Corneille, David Ives’s “The Liar” currently running at Classic Stage Company is a superb farce replete with delightful stereotyped characters caught up in hilarious exaggerated situations. “The Liar” lands on stage at the perfect time and reminds theatre goers of the enduring importance of vaudeville in times of political upheaval. After a…
The New Group proudly presents the world premiere of All the Fine Boys, a new play from writer and director Erica Schmidt, featuring Abigail Breslin, Isabelle Fuhrman, Joe Tippett and Alex Wolff. Previews begin February 14 in advance of Official Opening Night on Wednesday, March 1. A limited Off-Broadway engagement plays through March 26 at The Pershing Square Signature Center (Ford Foundation Studio Theatre, 480 West 42nd Street). Fourteen-year-old best friends Jenny (Abigail Breslin) and Emily…
The New Group has announced that two-time Tony Award winner Matthew Broderick joins Wallace Shawn’s Evening at the Talk House, with, as previously announced, Jill Eikenberry, John Epperson, Larry Pine, Wallace Shawn, Claudia Shear, Annapurna Sriram and Michael Tucker, representing full casting for this U.S. premiere directed by Scott Elliott. Previews for Evening at the Talk House begin January 31 in advance of an Official Opening Night on February 16 at The Pershing Square Signature Center (The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre, 480 West…