Ian Thal

Theater Review: Actors’ Shakespeare Project’s Romeo & Juliet — Just the Tragic Story

October 17, 2013
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Actors’ Shakespeare Project’s production is a fine start to the company’s tenth aniversary season and an impressive realization of its founding mission statement — for this company, story and the actor’s craft trump directorial conceits.

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Theater Review: “Dog Paddle” — An Elegant Comedy about Inelegantly Keeping Your Head Above Water

September 22, 2013
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Swiss Stage’s inaugural offering was Dog Paddle (Schwimmen wie Hunde), a domestic comedy based on existential themes, by the German-speaking playwright Reto Finger.

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Theater Review: “The Libertine” Serves Up Decadent Pleasures

September 14, 2013
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Playwright Stephen Jeffreys, despite his gifts as a writer, seems unable to find the dramatic stakes in his play.

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Theater Review: “One Man, Two Guvnors” — From Brighton to Boston

September 12, 2013
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Director Spiro Veloudos keeps the clockwork running smoothly, not just ensuring that that the actors keep the rhythm, but making use of a skilled backstage crew who engineer (miraculously and on time) scenery and costume changes.

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Theater Review: “Valentine Trilogy” Has a Lot of Passion but Could Use More Smarts

August 13, 2013
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So what’s a hero to do but throw punches and kicks in the name of love and forgiveness?

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Theater Feature: From the Mouths of Female Despots — An Interview With Playwright Theresia Walser

July 13, 2013
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Dramatist Theresia Walser is careful to point out that these women did not merely benefit from the abuses of authoritarian power, but perpetrated many of them as well.

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Theater Review: “The Merchant of Venus” — Shakespeare, Politically Corrected

June 22, 2013
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This production of Shakespeare’s ‘The Merchant of Venice” tries to have it both ways: a show about intolerance, bigotry, and hatred is set in a ‘politically correct’ past.

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Stage Review: A Pleasurably Formulaic “Best Friends” Via Israeli Stage

May 22, 2013
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Anat Gov does a fine job on the meta-playwriting level. “Best Friends” is a genre piece that is also an affectionate commentary on the genre to which it belongs.

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Theater Review: A Supremely Funny “Servant of Two Masters”

February 5, 2013
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Leaving aside the doctrinal issue of how much of a commedia dell’arte evening should be improvised and how much should be scripted, the Yale Repertory Theatre production, in terms of performance and design, sets a high standard.

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Theater Review: “A Little Calm Before the Storm” — The Art of Playing Hitler

December 22, 2012
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Director Guy Ben-Aharon is on a roll. Working through Israeli Stage and German Stage, he has brought together another smart, compelling foreign play (an American premiere) and a first-rate cast.

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