Merrimack Repertory Theatre

Theater Review: “I and You”—Sounding a “Barbaric Yawp”

October 16, 2015
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This gem of a play that is guaranteed to make you gasp at its surprising conclusion and leave the theater reveling in its lush language and the outstanding performances.

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Theater Review: Learn to Roll with the Punchlines — “The Complete History of Comedy (Abridged)”

May 6, 2014
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The comic material here may be of the rubber chicken variety, but the Reduced Shakespeare Company performers are remarkably talented men.

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Coming Attractions in Theater: March 2011

February 26, 2011
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An exciting month, and that isn’t hyperbole. A couple of North American premieres: a futuristic opera from MIT’s Tod Machover and poet Robert Pinsky and a drama tweaking The New Testament from Howard Brenton. Toss in iconic director Peter Brook staging Beckett, F. Murray Abraham as Shylock, and Car Talk:The Musical and you are talking about taking out the smelling salts

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Coming Attractions in Theater: February 2011

January 28, 2011
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A hold-onto-your seat month with some intriguing world premieres, including a musical version of a Korean folktale, an attempt to turn Aeschylus’s Prometheus Bound into a rock event, and a cerebral confab featuring Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Machiavelli. By Bill Marx. King Lear by William Shakespeare. Directed by Michael Grandage. NT Live screens the…

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Coming Attractions in Theater: November 2010

October 31, 2010
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Holiday season is kicking in, which means it becomes harder to find theater that doesn’t set out to warm your heart and melt your mind. Though a Santaland Diary or two remains, the vogue for cynical Xmas shows has run its course. Still, all is not lost when you can still find such extraordinary family…

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Coming Attractions in Theater: October 2010

October 1, 2010
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October brings in epics from the classics (Shakespeare and Dickens), ghost stories from the classics (Poe, Henry James), a tragicomedy from a classic (O’Neill), and a comedy from a classic (Ben Jonson). Annie Baker, Ethan Coen, and the Rude Mechanicals provide some welcome respite from the tried-and-true. Given the state of the economy and the…

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Coming Attractions in Theater: April 2010

April 1, 2010
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Any month that includes an attempt to get kids into the poetry of Shakespeare, inspirational women, and talking chickens looks fairly promising. By Bill Marx 1: Shakespeare and the Language that Shaped a World by Kevin G. Coleman. Directed by Jenna Ware. Presented by Shakespeare and Company at the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre, Lenox, MA,…

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Coming Attractions in Theater: February 2010

January 31, 2010
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A recent piece in the New York Times provides further proof of the increasingly pernicious stranglehold marketing exerts on the production of new voices in the theater. By Bill Marx Let’s face it—the fastest growing segment of non-profit hiring in the arts over the past decade or so, marketing, is now pretty much in the…

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Coming Attractions in Theater: January 2010

December 27, 2009
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By Bill Marx The coming month offers some unusual examples of theater. Finished with “exploding” Shakespeare, the American Repertory Theater has decided to present the American classics unabridged. Produced by the Elevator Repair Service, “Gatz” is an evening of drama that revolves around a complete reading of “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Political…

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Coming Attractions in Theater: October 2009

October 2, 2009
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By Bill Marx October includes the usual line-up of plays by seal-of-approval dramatists, Edward Albee and Conor McPherson, but there’s some welcome new blood, from Punchdrunk’s athletic adaptation of “Macbeth” to “Little Black Dress,” playwright Ronan Noone’s latest salvo at our national psyche, and “The Overwhelming,” the Boston premiere of a critically acclaimed study of…

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