Helen Epstein

Theater Review: Dumbing Down “A Month in the Country”

August 8, 2012
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A 19th-century Russian masterpiece presented in a translation and a production whose mishmash of style distorts the play and confuses both actors and audiences.

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Fuse Theater Review: “Running” in The Wrong Direction

August 3, 2012
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Why did Chester Theatre Company’s Artistic Director Byam Stevens choose such a banal, lazily-written play with no drama, no development, barely any interesting language, and none of the wit, charm or whimsy I’ve come to associate with this stage company?

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Fuse Theater Review: Dive into the “North Pool”

August 1, 2012
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Theatergoers will find Khadim a new character in the American theater: an entitled, cosmopolitan Middle Eastern teenager, born in Damascus to Iranian parents, who speaks Farsi, Arabic, French, and Italian in addition to English.

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Theater Review: “All My Sons” — An American Antique

July 25, 2012
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If this sounds like a melodrama, that is because Arthur Miller wrote one. “All My Sons” was very much a product of the dramatist’s times and politics.

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Theater Review: “The Swan” — Not Your Average Love Triangle

July 22, 2012
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“The Swan” is a bold choice for a theater company and demands excellent actors and direction to keep it afloat.

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Fuse Classical Music Tip: Aimez Vous Brahms? Then Head to Tanglewood

July 21, 2012
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Tired of glitz and looking for a transformative musical experience? You can do no better than to hear this relatively unheralded musician play some of the most sublime music ever written.

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Theater Review: Uncommon Summer Theater — “Animals Out of Paper”

July 7, 2012
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Deftly directed by May Adrales, aided by sensitive sound, lighting, and costume design, “Animals Out of Paper” is exciting summer theater.

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Theater Review: Two Plays Chronicle the Lives of Pioneering Women

July 4, 2012
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Two Berkshire theaters are offering one-woman shows this summer. Both scripts feature intelligent, frank, and charismatic women. Both productions star gifted and seasoned actors.

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Book Review: Memoir as Love Letter — “Into the Garden with Charles”

June 4, 2012
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Into the Garden with Charles reads like a great love letter: beautifully written, full of feeling, a document of an intimate connection that never lost its wonder for the author.

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Theater Review: Hershey Felder in “George Gershwin Alone”

June 1, 2012
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What “George Gershwin Alone” provides is a light, pleasant evening of familiar music, with playwright, pianist, and actor Hershey Felder performing excerpts from a dozen or so of Gershwin’s best-known works.

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