Director Bevin O’Gara Speaks About Play With No Talking For a play in which the characters aren’t allowed to speak, Small Mouth Sounds says a lot. The play, by Bess Wohl, follows its characters on a comedic and poignant journey in self-reflection and mutual understanding at a spiritual retreat. Director Bevin O’Gara, a […]
BOOK REVIEW: ANXIETY AND THE EQUATION
It’s not a textbook, but there’s “something you can learn from it” Ludwig Boltzmann was an excruciatingly anxious person and also one of the best scientific minds of his generation. Boltzmann’s revolutionary work on entropy paved the way for Einstein’s quantum revolution of the early 20th century, and yet he still spent hours, […]
IT’S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL
Winter People at the Boston Playwrights’ Theater ★★☆☆☆ It’s a particularly East Coast feeling—the eeriness of a summer resort in winter, when February winds blow through the dormant wooden roller coaster at the amusement park or an empty plastic bag blows across the frozen, barren beaches of New Jersey. Laura Neill’s new […]
FRONT PORCH PUSHES THEATRICAL DIVERSITY
A new black-led Boston theater company prepares its inaugural season The hard truth about Boston is that it’s a fairly racist city. It’s evident in its social dynamics and made painfully (in)visible in its cultural scene. At least Dawn M. Simmons, the artistic director of the city’s first black-led professional theater company in […]
A.R.T. CHEERS ‘EXTRAORDINARY’ DECADE
★★★★☆ It seems the folks over at the American Repertory Theater have racked up a lot to be thankful for in the decade since Diane Paulus became the company’s artistic director. ExtraOrdinary, a collection of songs and talents from the 30-some musicals produced during her tenure, revels in a contagious self-satisfaction that’s hard […]
PASSION FOR DANCE AT 2018 BOSTON BHANGRA COMPETITION
The scene outside the Orpheum theater last Saturday looked like any other night before a show. People lined up in the cold. Security guards waved metal detectors around puffy black coats, while women and men opened up their (usually black) backpacks and purses for inspection. Shuffling through the doors, people began peeling off black […]
ALL BARK, NO BITE IN AKA THEATRE’S IN THE FOREST, SHE GREW FANGS
★★☆☆☆ Once upon a time, there was a play. And in this play, presented by Also Known As Theatre, there was a girl. And a forest. And a grandmother. And a wolf. Stephen Spotswood’s In the Forest, She Grew Fangs, directed by Kelly Smith, tries to play off this classic scenario. A girl […]
THE RIGHT WAY TO DO SLAPSTICK COMEDY IN THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG
★★★★☆ After drinking and spitting out scotch (read: paint thinner) for the fourth time, Thomas Colleymoore (Robert Grove) shouts—for the fourth time—“Good God! I needed that.” It seems that The Play That Goes Wrong is just what the audience needed. A chance to laugh, even guffaw, at a show that’s equal parts smart […]
UNLESS: MASSIVE PIECE OF ART TELLS SIMPLE MESSAGE ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING
Artist Stephane Cardon is using a large artwork to tell a simple message: Climate change is a pressing, unavoidable crisis that we must take fast action to remediate. Her 3,400-square-foot piece in the entryway of the Prudential Center uses vibrantly colored construction debris netting, a sustainable choice of material. Cardon is also a professor […]
THE SALONNIÈRES AIMS FOR BITING CRITIQUE, HITS DATED COMMENTARY
★★☆☆☆ It’s easy to see what the set of The Salonnières is trying to do. It’s an opulent room filled with ornate couches and chairs—Renaissance paintings hung on the walls. But the most striking aspect of this set, designed by Katy Monthei, is its boundaries. The room is set on a raised stage […]
