Bill Marx
Author Carol Verburg covers a sinfully neglected part of Edward Gorey’s career –- the books on his art deal cursorily, if at all, with his forays into theater as a director, designer, actor, and writer
Read MoreThe Zeitgeist Stage Company production has made me rethink Edward Albee’s HOMELIFE to the extent that the couple, well played by Peter Brown and Christine Power, generate a loving bond that adds some welcome tension (and humor) to the revelations of free-floating anxiety and confusion.
Read MoreHenrik Ibsen’s rejection of the everyday drives this compelling take on “Hedda Gabler” – the production generates a theatrical arena that is simultaneously acrobatic and surreal.
Read MoreA Chekhovian dramatic fabric calls for a tough/tender gift for realism. Getting the balance right is tricky — too much reassurance veers toward easy sentimentality, while excessive punishment pushes the proceedings toward soap opera.
Read MoreMay is usually a so-so respite before the summer season revs up, but there’s some interesting productions popping up, including Propeller Theatre Company’s all-male versions of Shakespeare’s Richard III and The Comedy of Errors, Amy Brenneman’s autobiographical show Mouth Wide Open, and an opportunity to see J. M. Barrie take it on in the chin…
Read MoreEditor Nicholas Frankel is right to argue that familiarity with Oscar Wilde’s original manuscript of The Picture of Dorian Gray deepens its vision, suggesting that the 1891 novel is a far less morally reassuring tale than readers have thought. The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition by Oscar Wilde. Edited by Nicholas Frankel.…
Read MoreIt is really very much of its time and place, its particular moment in history. The social revolution of the 20s, the new freedoms for “modern” women, the flapper phenomenon, and the challenges to the class structure in urban 20th century America are among the issues in this 1927 silent comedy. By Bill Marx The…
Read MoreThis volume of one-act plays may gather up the whiffs and dregs of Tennessee Williams’ achievement, but their flashes of brilliance are valuable reminders of an artist who kept at his craft, come hell and high water, critical as well as popular.
Read MoreWilliam King is a loving, self-sacrificing, salt-of-the-earth character mooning over the vanished past; Sonia is a saintly wife yearning for hubby to join her in Heaven; the sons care for each other and for their father—time to pull out your hankies. Broke-ology by Nathan Louis Jackson. Directed by Benny Sato Ambush. Staged by the Lyric…
Read MoreDostoevsky’s theater is set on a metaphysical stage — both “The Grand Inquisitor” and “9 Circles” explore whether the actions of its central characters are meaningful or absurd.
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