Posts Tagged ‘Elisa Benzoni’
The A’s, E’s and I’s Have It in NCR’s OK ‘Other Half’
Britain’s Sir Alan Ayckbourn is the best at his craft since Sir Noel Coward — the problem is that the era he chooses to reflect doesn’t always define the grit of day that Coward faced. Despite that, his ‘How the Other Half Loves’ holds water, as North Coast Repertory Theatre’s current turn illustrates.
Read MorePoor Man’s Espionage Rules in NCR’s Spry, Fun ‘Travels’
Henry was content to tend to his dahlias and otherwise fritter away his post-retirement — but his aunt Augusta had other plans, plans she’d unfurled all her life. North Coast Repertory’s very good ‘Travels with My Aunt’ charts their course to that effect.
Read MorePast Is Murky Prologue in Excellent ‘Awake And Sing!’
The world can be a deeply errant place, but it has nothing on its own past. Clifford Odets’ ‘Awake and Sing!’ is 82 years old, after all, and it’s a decided reflection on today’s craziness — you’ll find the parallels abundant in New Village Arts’ excellent production.
Read MoreLanguage And Its Exuberances Pepper NCR’s Excellent ‘Illusion’
French baroque playwright Pierre Corneille’s ‘L’Illusion Comique’ was written in 1636 as a nod to theater’s intrinsic beauty. Tony Kushner’s eye and ear saw the inherent tribute to performance art — and North Coast Repertory Theatre’s ‘The Illusion’ has preserved it with an excellent entry.
Read MoreYasmina Reza Is No Albee, But That Doesn’t Stop NVA’s Excellent ‘Carnage’
Playwright Yasmina Reza says we’re all kids at heart — and that’s not necessarily a compliment. Witness her ‘God of Carnage,’ the very good current mount at Carlsbad’s New Village Arts, and the abject childishness that so-called adults trot out when the veneers they’ve worked so hard to build are threatened. Indeed, the sins of the children are visited on those over 21.
Read MoreLanguage, Portraiture Don’t Always Match in NCR’s Decent ‘Hedda Gabler’
Amid her sham marriage and her obsession with what’s not hers, Hedda Gabler Tesman is an Everyman for the world’s pathologically unfulfilled. Henrik Ibsen’s iconic character gets an airing in North Coast Repertory Theatre’s ‘ Hedda Gabler’ — but a new translation seeks to redefine Hedda’s periphery rather than explore her depths.
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