This is an important play, to be considered a peer of Angels in America and The Inheritance, a sweeping two-play multigeneration account of the impact of AIDS on the American gay community -- with the difference that this one focuses on men and women of color.
It's not an unfamiliar tale, following Holocaust victim Eddie Jaku from comfortable circumstances through horror and gradually out again.
So, even with one major problem, the muddy sound denign, whether to go see this show is no mystery.
There are great depths here, and great wisdom, and Playwright Ellen McLoughlin’s handiwork and that of Chesapeake Shakespeare convey them well.
Playwright Suzan Lori-Parks evidently likes to swing for the fences.
Scena Theatre productions are never mere theatrical comfort food; they generally have classical or European roots and, whether comic or tragic, they are always intellectually serious affairs, out to show us or make us think about interesting matters.
A Doll’s House, by Henrik Ibsen, translated, adapted, and directed by Joanie Schultz, runs through September 28, at Everyman Theatre.
Given the moat of terrible traffic that separates Baltimore theatergoers from Arlington, what can justify a visit there? Well, one answer for sure is Signature Theatre’s stunning production of the 2014 musical The Bridges of Madison County.
I think the minimalism and starkness is intended to be clarifying; we are meant to be focused on the hearts of the various intertwined stories Shakespeare presents, and perhaps less distracted by other things going on at the very large periphery the playwright has laid out.
So, by virtue of all of these elements this show is compleat in the senses fostered by the archaic spelling of the word, what Webster's renders as 'having all the necessary or desired elements or skills.
The Sound Inside, by Adam Rapp, now gracing the boards at Baltimore's Everyman Theatre, is one of those all-too-rare plays that just bowls you over, even if, afterwards, you’re not quite sure where you’ve been during its bemusing 90 minutes.
The play doesn’t do either superficiality or depth well.
Families, sisterly conflicts, alienation from parents, suicidal tendencies, dissociation, nostalgia for childhood mingled with mature reevaluation of it: all these themes and tropes are universal.
Go See It! Join the enthralled cult! It’s for anyone who was ever a theater or choir kid.
We do get a sort of happy ending, but not with a gratifying round of absolution for everyone.
As the director says, this is a 'Black play that speaks to Black people and talks about Black shit.
You not only have to have the talent to do the technical side of costume drama well, and have actors who can emote convincingly and then (in this case) reverse gears convincingly, and then reverse gears again as many times as the script calls for.
They sure don't write them like Holiday anymore.
There’s so much to like in Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s current revival of Twelfth Night, a production that succeeds in big things and small, that I can’t imagine any spectator walking away unsatisfied.
Dated and flawed as I consider it, Sweet Charity is something of a landmark in the world of the American musical, and this rendition is admirable.
