to kill
The value of enduring questions is that they are not specific to a time or place or event. Theatre should be raising enduring questions and conflicts that playwrights (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of years ago and remain relevant today. Stephen Adly Guirgis raises several such questions in the revival of his play “Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train,” currently…
Corina’s (Cristy Reynoso) dream is to reach New York City and start a new life. This American Dream begins in Guatemala and reaches a climax in Tucson, Arizona where the twenty-two-year-old illegal immigrant is being held in a “safe house” by her “coyotaje” Efren (Juan Ramirez, Jr.), the human smuggler who has illegally transported Corina from her crossing point into…
“These parting words, she left behind/These parting words she left behind/And I put them in your hands now/These parting words she left behind.” – The Nun Lee (Brian Charles Rooney) is the twenty-something female impersonator who graces the small stage at the Golden Lantern, an old bar – a joint – in the French Quarter of New Orleans. The small…
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….
“By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.” Genesis 3:19 On its first return to New York City since it was featured in FringeNYC 2014, “Dust Can’t Kill Me” is a powerful and delightfully complicated trope…
“A bit of shouting – everyone shouts here – it’s the national sport.” – Robert to Jimmy in “Quietly” Fifty-two-year-old Ian (Declan Conlon) appeals to his teen years’ nemesis Jimmy (Patrick O’Kane) to meet in the neighborhood Belfast pub where they first became aware of one another thirty-six years ago when they were both only sixteen. It is not the…
“I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” (John 12:24) One legitimate critical…
The Dallas Black Dance Theatre (DBDT) returns to New York for its fifth season of self-produced performances on April 22-23, 2016 in the Ailey Citigroup Theater, located at 405 West 55thStreet, in New York, New York. The Masterworks Redefined – New York series will showcase the energetic dance artistry of the repertory dance company that is turning 40 in its…
“Danger! Danger! Warning! Warning!” – Robot in “Lost in Space” Lost in space, the Robinson family knew they had landed in a dangerous place. But danger is not found only in outer space: indeed, Earth itself is a dangerous place. The danger is sometimes closer than one thinks, lurking in the shadows, rustling in the closet at night, waiting under…
If Eugène Ionesco and Martin McDonagh watched The Maltese Falcon, they may very well have come up with something akin to Stolen Chair’s Kill Me Like You Mean It; but it wouldn’t be nearly as good as the comedic masterwork currently running at Fourth Street Theatre. When private eye Ben Farrell is hired to investigate a series of crimes seemingly…