“You could be dead tomorrow,” young Dave (Daniel Marconi) tells his army buddy Bobby (Harrison Tipping) during a night out in 1979 Belfast, justifying their reckless behavior. “Live in the moment.” Thirty-five years later, after Bobby’s murder, that moment has become the only moment that matters—an endless present tense of guilt, rage, and impossible choices. Leo McGann’s “The Honey Trap,”…
Loving Gene Wilder and Gilda Radner is easy. Making an audience care about them theatrically? That is the challenge “Gene & Gilda” never manages to meet. Any play about such strong and well-known characters must earn that emotional investment through good writing, strong performances, and compelling staging, regardless of how much audiences might adore Gene and Gilda in real life….
The characters in Conor McPherson’s “The Weir,” currently running at the Irish Repertory Theatre, tell ghost stories and stories of the supernatural to newcomer Valerie (Sarah Street) at the local bar in Northern Ireland owned by Brendan (Johnny Hopkins). Before Valerie’s arrival with Finbar, Jack (Dan Butler), Jim (John Keating), and Brendan chat about the weather, selling Brendan’s bar, and…
The new play by Matthew Lombardo titled “Conversations with Mother” now playing Off-Broadway at Theatre 555, is a lighthearted and comical evening of entertainment, mostly due to the extremely talented cast. This eighty-five minute two-hander stars Caroline Aaron and Matt Doyle, who make use of their perfect timing and comedic skills to bring as many laughs as possible to the…
In Nancy Harris’s “The Beacon,” currently on at the Irish Repertory Theatre, four characters navigate through life’s rough waters. Three make it. One is still lost at sea. The back wall of Beiv’s (Kate Mulgrew) cottage on an island off the coast of West Cork is made almost entirely of glass and looks out onto the Atlantic Ocean. Angst and…
Language and translation serve as powerful tropes for colonial ownership in Brian Friel’s “Translations” currently playing at Irish Repertory Company through Sunday. December 31, 2023. Headmaster Hugh (Sean McGinley) of the hedge-school in the townland of Baile Beag/Balleybeg the Irish-speaking community in County Donegal and his eldest son Manus (Owen Campbell) teach Irish, Latin and Greek to the local students….
New York theater goers know Marie Mullen from her performance in “The Cripple of Inishmaan” as Billy Claven’s Aunt Kate who talks to stones, and from her performance in “The Beauty Queen of Leenane” as Meg who is desperate to escape from her tyrannical mother. Mullen returns to the New York Stage to play Maire the “Monster Irish Mother” in…
“Foxes” a new play by Dexter Flanders now having a run at 59E59 theaters is appropriately named since the two central characters Daniel (an earnest Raphel Famotibe) and Leon (a complex Bayo Gbadamosi) resolve their issue following the age-old idiom of being “clever as a fox.” Mr. Flanders has penned a complicated story that deals with themes of sexual identity,…
There are two paths to “disappearance” in David Cale’s engaging “Sandra” currently running at the Vineyard Theatre. The audience discovers that Ethan Martin’s path has been well thought out. Sandra Jones’ (Marjan Neshat) path on the other hand is completely reactive, random, and riddled with danger. Two paths diverge in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and the choices made by both on…
Every once in a while, there comes along a little gem of a play that certainly will knock you off your feet, especially if it is a first-rate production and impeccably performed by two remarkable actors. This happens to be the case at hand on the stage of The Irish Repertory Theatre, where Chester Bailey penned by Joseph Dougherty is…