Posts Tagged ‘Melanie Chen’
Past 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 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.
Read MoreUneven Subtext Can’t Sink Cygnet’s Good ‘The Whale’
Charlie was always big, but not like this. Life has fueled his colossal eating disorder — and playwright Samuel D. Hunter gives us plenty of explanation (despite some very faulty subtext) in Cygnet Theatre Company’s good ‘The Whale.’
Read MoreGood Ion Double Bill Not As Scary As It Seems
“Edgar & Annabel” and “Far Away,” ion theatre company’s current double bill, has us locked into a future of worldwide oppression and conflict, which is precisely what won’t transpire in human history. But the production values transcend all that in this very well-crafted piece of theater.
Read More