“Yes, all who can call at least one soul/ Theirs upon this earth; /But any who cannot must creep tearfully/ Away from our circle.” – From “Ode to Joy” by Friedrich von Schiller, 1785 Soteriology, trying to figure out what it means to be a savior, is a difficult business and for the savior it is often a messy business….
Despite the early protestation of playwright Jonatha Brooke, the aft end of the title of her “My Mother Has 4 Noses” is a trope; indeed, ‘4 noses’ is a well-developed and quite brilliant extended metaphor for not only the four seasons of the life of Brooke’s mother Darren Stone (“Stoney”) Nelson; the short phrase is also a metaphor for Stoney’s…
“With thy sharp teeth this knot intrinsicate/Of life at once untie: poor venomous fool/Be angry, and dispatch.” —Cleopatra, Act V, scene II Cleopatra knew the allure of the asp, the Egyptian cobra. Its venom, its bite, was – in her opinion – a rather dignified and relatively humane way to administer capital punishment offering “sleepiness and heaviness without spasms of…
“Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.” I Corinthians 13:8 (NIV) Sans a singular protagonist, sans a singular antagonist, sans clear conflicts, therefore sans plot, Caryl Churchill’s “Love and Information” depends on a singular trope to provide focus and interest…
“[Charlotte’s] come back to me. There’s nothing more right.” – Philip Graves to Mirabel in Scene Nine Bereavement makes for a strange bedfellow. It joins battle with the bereaved and insists on skirmishes with denial and isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, and (ultimately) acceptance of the death of the loved one. These incursions into the life of the bereaved are not…
“My mother just walked out the door one morning, and never came home. She once said to me: “Follow your heart, Matthew. Follow your heart, and you will always be happy.” I’m going to follow my heart. This way I’ll always know that she’s proud of me.” – From Matthew’s Prologue Just as Matthew’s (Austin Caldwell) “high end” video camera…
Catherine Trieschmann’s new play “The Most Deserving” is a delicious and raucous mélange of six characters facing their own and others’ sexism, racism, and homophobia as they struggle to bestow a twenty thousand dollar award to a deserving local visual artist. “This artist,” Jolene Atkinson (Veanne Cox) informs her Arts Council, “must have lived in Ellis County for five years….
Buried somewhere beneath tired (and tiring) humor – much of it in poor taste – lies a story Liz Peak and Barry Peak intended to be engaging as well as humorous. Unfortunately their well-intentioned plan falls mostly flat in the world premiere of their “Philosophy for Gangsters” currently running through March 1, 2014 at the Beckett Theatre on Theatre Row…
Charles Busch and his band of merry-makers have pitched camp (for all too short a time) at 59E59 Theater A for the final offering in Primary Stages’ twenty-ninth Season, Mr. Busch’s gender-bending and exquisite “The Tribute Artist.” The result of this incursion into the winter blues is nothing short of brilliant. From cast to creative team to direction, this delicious…
“when by now and tree by leaf/ she laughed his joy she cried his grief/ bird by snow and stir by still/anyone’s any was all to her” – E. E. Cummings Ginette (Kelly McAndrew) and Pete (John Cariani) provide the dramatic context for Mr. Cariani’s “Almost, Maine” currently running at the Gym at Judson and already extended one week even…