The Group Rep presents Simon Gray's award-winning wry, dry comic play OTHERWISE ENGAGED directed by Linda Alznauer. In the blithely, sexually-indulgent 70s, a hooked-on-sex book publisher actually craves a tranquil afternoon of Wagner's Parsifal to soothe the savage beast within.
It is Bo's hard-learned lesson about romance and respect that keeps BUS STOP in the forefront as one of the great classic American romance stories. And thanks to the talented cast and director Ann Hearn Tobolowsky's attention to detail and effective use of freeze framing cast members while others speak, these well known characters will reach out and grab you by the heart, stirring your emotions as lessons are learned, partnerships are formed, and everyone gets exactly what they want by the time the road re-opens, especially a naive cowboy and a 19-year old hick singer from the Ozarks determined to make a better life for herself.
Written in much the same style as The Laramie Project by Moises Kaufman where a small group of actors portray several characters sharing their experience of living through a tragic local event and its aftermath on the town, Eric Ulloa's 26 PEBBLES does not just recount what happened on December 14, 2012, but is more about how the people of the Newtown community reached out to their neighbors to bond, cope and heal from that devastating tragedy in order to move forward with their lives to a more hopeful future.
English playwright and screenwriter Frederick Knott, though a reluctant writer, is known for his ingeniously complex, crime-related plots even though he only completed three plays in his career. Two have become classics: the London-based stage thriller Dial M for Murder, which was later filmed in Hollywood by Alfred Hitchcock, and the chilling 1966 play Wait Until Dark, which also became a Hollywood film starring Audrey Hepburn as a blind woman terrorized by thugs in her basement apartment. His third play, WRITE ME A MURDER, has never achieved the same acclaim nor been performed nearly as much as his other two hit plays. See it now at Theatre Palisades, directed with attention-grabbing skill by Michael-Anthony Nozzi.
Dated? Most definitely. Terence Rattigan's Separate Tables is about 1950s morality as it was experienced in Great Britain. Things have changed over 60 years; let's hope first and foremost that women are treated more humanely by men, and secondly, one's social class - does it even exist today? - is much less a priority. On another level, it's fascinating to witness the desperate loneliness that existed - and still may- among both young and older couples, particularly when they're encumbered with one addiction or another. That's Rattigan's Separate Tables with two completely different lead couples in each act who try to uncover or rediscover the meaning of love. With expert direction from Jules Aaron and a superb ensemble of players, Theatre 40's Separate Tables is quite a handsome and emotionally charged production.
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