This is a galvanic production that stirs the spirit and demands that we reflect on what the script says about our own time, our own struggles.
American-Repertory-Theatre
Fuse Theater Review: “Icarus” in the Dust Bowl
Icarus proffers plenty of spectacle and talent, but the show only recycles a story we’ve seen countless times on stage and screen.
Coming Attractions in Theater: May 2010
By Bill Marx The month contains plenty of summerish entertainment, from a new baseball musical to a campy Alfred Hitchcock parody and a jazzy update of The Mikado. For me, the standouts are the more demanding fare, such as a festival of new American theater pieces and an exciting opportunity see Shakespeare’s rarely staged Timon […]
Theater Commentary: Isn’t It a Question of Relevance?
The reviews of the Huntington Theatre Company (HTC) production were generally ecstatic. And what could be timelier than an oft-produced American drama that focuses on the tragic costs of war profiteering?
Coming Attractions in Theater: October 2009
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 […]
Theater Review: The A.R.T. Shakes Its Ass
Observe the ass … his character is about perfect, he is the choicest spirit among all the humbler animals. — Mark Twain, “Pudd’nhead Wilson” The Donkey Show Conceived by Randy Weiner. Directed by Diane Paulus and Randy Weiner. Presented by the American Repertory Theater at Zero Arrow Street, Cambridge, MA Presented by American Repertory Theater, […]
Theater Review: Of Sex, Death, and Ducks
Let us hob-and-nob with Death — Alfred, Lord Tennyson The Duck Variations by David Mamet. Directed by Marcus Stern. Sexual Perversity in Chicago by David Mamet. Directed by Paul Stacey. Presented by the American Repertory Theatre at Zero Arrow Street, Cambridge, MA, through June 28. Reviewed by Bill Marx Death be not mentioned in David […]
World Theater: Sucked Dry, or Let Romania Speak for Itself
By Bill Marx Earlier this month, Horace Engdahl, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, stoked up the cultural consternation machine when he implied that American writers are too provincial to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. American literary life is “too isolated, too insular” he opines, its writers don’t translate particularly well and they aren’t […]
Arts Commentary: When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Marketing
Revving up marketing machinery raises some uncomfortable questions: Why should donors give funds to a theater if their money is going to pay for focus groups and demographic studies rather than to support the work of artists?
Response: Critical Justification
A certain number of people (not huge) want to read critics who take the arts seriously, who do more than tell readers what is worth spending their money on.