This stark, disquieting drama depicts the eleventh-hour effort of a hired tutor to transform the life of a very bright, self-destructive teenager before a Columbine tragedy occurs in San Diego. "... the disquieting drama visits a shockingly dysfunctional family and its truly troubled teen ... The tables turn several times in this intense, suspenseful one-act ... Especially intriguing is the fact that we never quite know at the end what really happened, or what will happen next. Is the kid really a Bad Seed? Did this amoral adolescent, under the tutor's tutelage, actually develop a conscience and a sense of remorse by the end? Will the tutor live? Havis isn't telling. I love this play. The writing is terrific, smart and slick, scary and inscrutable all at once ... The play is superb ..." -Pat Launer, Center Stage, Jazz 88.3FM (San Diego)
Joanie wants recognition for her paintings; her crime-boss husband, Nick, can ensure that she gets it. Slut-shirt May wants to learn how to paint so she can have a picture of her dead mother; her mechanic husband, Jake, wants to elevate himself to crime thug so that May will respect him. Nick just wants Joanie to love him the way he deserves ... Two men, two women, two loopy marriages, some paintings, and some crime collide in this comedy about marriage, ambition and art. "If there is a common thread in York's projects, it is that they are full of uncommon characters: children, 1960's housewives, black financial consultants, Native American activists. Very few of York's characters seem to have anything to do with the playwright herself ... and her attention to those differences gives her work a frankly political spin ..." -American Theater "... York herself has an ethereal, gentle quality. Her work has a piercing intuition. It is literate and often treads a line between blackness and humor ..." -MidWeek, Hawaii "Though treating weighty issues, York doesn't clobber you with them, instead maintaining a light touch. While her themes may be familiar, she (finds) a fresh and individual approach ... accurately capturing the quirks of human attitudes and interplay ..." -Houston Chronicle "She makes her points by not taking herself too seriously, even as she offers astute observations ..." -New York Times "York has a real flair for wry, intelligent humor ..." -Seattle Times "York has a wonderful gift for writing funny lines, and she endows her characters with individual senses of humor ..." -Bellevue Journal American
On a rainy night in Los Angeles, a young couple get an abrupt visit from two old friends. But they're not stopping by for pleasure but to warn them that someone, or something, from their past is coming for them all ... "David Lynch, Amy Tan and The Man Show collide in FREAK STORM ... Matt Pelfrey's new one-act about the inscrutability of those we love juggles macabre comedy, relationship drama and political incorrectness ... Pelfrey is undeniably talented, demonstrating a flair for bilious ribaldry." David C Nichols, Los Angeles Times "In the skilled hands of playwright Pelfrey, this is a classic, dramatic moral dilemma that goes ... right to the guts ... with primal force and power ... Add FREAK STORM to the list of fine works by Pelfrey." -Backstage West "... unsettling exploration of the human psyche ... this gripping morality play." -Martin Hernandez, L A Weekly "The climactic scene with a garbage disposal is so shocking that some avert their eyes, others turn away, but all are riveted to the seats, wondering how it will resolve. You'll have to see the play to know what went down the disposal - prepare to be shocked! ... FREAK STORM is really freaky ..." -Entertainment Today "This domestic disturbance reveals very scary stuff about the world of men ... This unsettling drama which benefits from ... a lot of dark comic material from Pelfrey's bag of tricks." -K C R W (radio)
Based on a true story, SEDITION follows an innocent man accused of sedition during the war hysteria of World War I. "Passing Veterans Green on my way home from the Westport Country Playhouse last week, I was struck by the suddenly ambiguous statue of a World War I doughboy carrying his kit bag, helmet and rifle. Somehow, he looked burdened rather than glorious, more worn-out than brave. Surely the memorial hadn't changed; it was me. I was coming from David Wiltse's new play and my head was full of questions about America's participation in that tragic, famously unnecessary conflict. A playwright who rattles the way you see things must be doing something right. In SEDITION, Mr Wiltse reaches back to his own family history, chronicling his grandfather's World War I run-in with the enforcers of patriotism. It's a compelling story in itself, but Mr Wiltse pointedly underlines the parallels between Woodrow Wilson's decision to enter the war against Germany and George W Bush's decision to invade Iraq ..." -Sylviane Gold, New York Times "David Wiltse's political drama SEDITION ... is an eloquent, incisive and witty play sure to push a theatergoer's buttons and trample raw nerves. In the tradition of Ibsen's AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE, Miller's THE CRUCIBLE and Mamet's OLEANNA, SEDITION is a passionate plea for personal freedom, honor and justice. Just as Miller's THE CRUCIBLE examines a (then) contemporary injustice - HUAC's bullying effort to ruin liberalism through the prism of a bygone travesty, the Salem witch hunts of the 1690s - Wiltse's use of the past begs the question of the present ... SEDITION is provocative theater filled with complexity and expressiveness. To whichever side one leans, it is highly unlikely that the play will leave anyone feeling indifferent." -E Kyle Minor, New Haven Register
Three generations of a family move ever westward, restless, seeking. As they migrate from Croatia, through Wyoming, and on to Japan, the land of opportunity keeps moving, and the past keeps catching up. This unforgettable family provides an exquisitely rendered commentary on the human condition. "Smart, funny, provocative, a bit elliptical ... Anthony Clarvoe's account of the immigration experience, with a heavy shading of his own family's story of leaving Croatia, is an admirable new American play ... AMBITION FACING WEST is the story of three generations of Croatians and their determination to better themselves by facing constantly west. This gives the play a nicely circular construction both in space and time. Not only are the characters constantly on the move, but Clarvoe ... gracefully maneuver[s] the characters back and forth in time. Most of the actors play two parts, usually two generations apart, which is another intriguing touch ..." -Ed Siegel, The Boston Globe "A moat surrounds the semicircular stage of AMBITION FACING WEST. It's a striking symbol of both containment and freedom, the two opposing images at the heart of this sprawling, yet wonderfully spare play ... AMBITION FACING WEST manages to cover enormous territory without overwhelming ... The title, AMBITION FACING WEST, refers to the dreams of opportunity that have sent people westward throughout this century. Using the far-flung path of one family as his frame, Clarvoe opens in turn-of-the-century Dalmatia, but swiftly slips back and forth between 1940s Wyoming, 1980s Japan and 1910 Croatia. Throughout the journey, we see the eternal pull between parents and children - the desire to hold them close struggling with the drive to offer them something better ... AMBITION FACING WEST resonates with impressive depth, and his words continue to ripple long after that moat water becomes quiet again." -Terry Byrne, Boston Herald
NIAGARA FALLS consists of two interrelated one-acts: AMERICAN COFFEE and THE SHANGRI-LA MOTOR INN. AMERICAN COFFEE: A working-class couple plots to drug their gay son and his lover to keep them from attending their daughter's wedding. THE SHANGRI-LA MOTOR INN: The newlyweds are ensconced in the Shangri-La Motor Inn for their wedding night. While the groom is anticipating the evening ahead, the bride is discussing the annulment of her not-yet-consummated marriage with the gay motel clerk. "Rich comic cadences ... Bumbalo is a funny guy." -Marilyn Stasio, New York Post "Funny ... Lively ... Bumbalo demonstrates a healthy satiric wit, aimed at both straights and gays, and a lively sense of comic dialogue." -Bernard Weiner, San Francisco Chronicle "NIAGARA FALLS dares to tread in delicate areas ... Bumbalo scores some sharp character comedy ... the play's overall treatment of a situation and a rejected social class who receive little 'gay' treatment is most welcomed." -Nicholas de Jongh, The Guardian (London) "Funny and incisive." -Rob Baker, Daily News "Bumbalo must have secretly taped parents across the country. He outdoes Neil Simon ... It is a finely written work." -John Kerr, Bay Area Reporter "A maximum of both humor and pathos ... I could have cheered." -James M Saslow, The Advocate "There is a basic humanity here that one finds in very few plays." -Michael Bronski, Gay Community News "NIAGARA FALLS is a tender, canny, and frequently hilarious comedy." -Alan Stern, The Boston Phoenix
How far would YOU go to defend your family? AN IMPENDING RUPTURE OF the BELLY concerns Clay Stilts' desire to fortify his house in preparation for both a new baby and the apocalypse he's convinced is just around the corner. Clay worries about so many things, nuclear terrorism, avian bird flu, killer earthquakes, riots, small pox crop dusters flying over Dodger Stadium. His obsessions are sidetracked when a slowly escalating battle with a neighbor who refuses to curb his dog explodes in an impulsive act of violence. In one reckless moment, Clay's world spins out of control, becoming a microcosm for a global struggle against threats to our security, both real and imagined. "Pelfrey is undeniably talented ... a gripping, funny play." -Los Angeles Times "Matt Pelfrey's galvanizing black comedy resembles those nightmares that nag at one's psyche the following day - too off-kilter to accept as reality, yet infused with imagery too haunting to dismiss ... Pelfrey's thought-provoking work is mesmeric from the first moment to the last." -Backstage "Pelfrey has a gift for oddball concepts and sardonic dialogue." -Variety "A brilliant little bulletin from the paranoia frontier." -L A City Beat
A MARRIAGE MINUET tells the witty tale of two married couples who know the temptations of monogamy all too well. For these middle-class suburbanites, flirtation leads to temptation, and temptation leads to infidelity. Five sophisticated characters provide a theatrical glimpse into the never-ending dance that we call marriage. "Go see this play ... This is the kind of play that could change your life ... I loved this play ... here's something I really like: art that is serious and sincere and tries to tell us something true and reform us and make us whole. That is what I liked about this play. Maybe that doesn't matter to you. Maybe what you'll like about this show is that it's cleverly structured and theatrically innovative. Maybe you'll like that it's really funny ... what had me blinking back tears and jumping from my seat at the show's end was that it tried so hard to tell me - simply, directly, honestly - something important. The dialogue is wickedly clever, mixing realist conversation with baldly generalized substitutions and vocalizations of private thoughts, which critically expose the characters' intentions, hypocrisies and insincerities. It mixes over-the-top silliness with bitingly smart observations about marriage and other social constructs. The jokes are sharp ..." -Eric Delp, Herald (Bradenton, FL) "Bonbon adjectives and fizzy feelings come into play when contemplating David Wiltse's A MARRIAGE MINUET, including words that haven't been used in reviews for awhile, like 'delightful' ... The play's outline is as old as French farce ... But Wiltse's approach is ultimately modern, powered by a glib style that skips over the tedium of small talk and goes straight to the snappy lines, epigrammatic observations and libidinous foolishness. If some of the technique and stylings evoke writers such as David Ives, Woody Allen, Elaine May, and Jules Feiffer, well, it's not such bad company to emulate ..." -Frank Rizzo, Variety "The mark of a good (or even great) playwright is the ability to write in many genres. Will Shakespeare, who wrote the deep tragedies of KING LEAR and ROMEO AND JULIET also wrote the slapstick farces THE COMEDY OF ERRORS and A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. Even Neil Simon, today's undisputed laugh master, has leavened his work with many serious moments. Now David Wiltse, who authored last season's powerful THE GOOD GERMAN, has stepped up with a change of pace with A MARRIAGE MINUET ... Whether dealing with comedy or tragedy, Mr Wiltse is a master of words, and he uses them to create bright, brilliant, brittle epigrams that elicit strong and consistent audience laughter. An obvious admirer of Oscar Wilde, Wiltse writes in a style that not only does justice to him, but also to Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley and Phillip Sheridan as well. Wiltse is a keen observer of humanity, and as such, he cannot help but develop a certain cynicism and an acerbic wit. MINUET is a study of the realities and the illusions of marriage, love, the mating game and sex. It states that morality is an illusion, a self-deception, and that all of us are buffeted by the winds of time and victims of opportunity ..." -Jerry Layton, Curtain Calls "Romantic comedies don't get any more clever than David Wiltse's new A MARRIAGE MINUET ..." -Jack Zink, Sun-Sentinel (Florida)
Len Jenkin's noir fantasy entertainment is a cross between a surreal radio melodrama and wacky comedy filled with music and fantasy. Margo Veil is a young actress whose strange adventures lead her into an ever-changing landscape of dream and reality. "Len Jenkin not only has a vivid imagination, but he also has an artist's command of his craft." -New York Times "Len Jenkin has an unusual talent for reaching into shadowy places in the human psyche and coming up with evocative images." -Journal American (Seattle) "Jenkin's plays have plenty of plot and delicious language, but the transience of experience is the main theme that runs through Jenkin's work. He manipulates theatrical illusions with a playful manner that recalls Jorge Luis Borges, to disguise meditations on mortality." -Village Voice (New York) "Jenkin explores many of the raw nerve ends in our society; the deep need to believe an absolute, while at the same time reveling in the gratification of the present; the difference between titillation and satisfaction; the bizarre nature of reality; and the real nature of the bizarre." -Times, (Seattle)
A fantasy drama on clairvoyance and supernatural events surrounding the life of an African American PhD candidate who is researching folklore and ghost communication within immigrant communities in California. She is bothered by the contact with her father and with the arrest of a serial killer of young children."An amazing, intriguing ghost tale that reinvests energy and wit throughout the contemporary San Diego/Tijuana landscape you'll never think of pre-school institutions and federal prisons in the same way again. This original, lyrical retelling of children's campfire boogeyman should haunt you beyond words." -Arthur Kopit
A roller-coaster ride through the American scene, from the Fascination Parlor to Leroy Smiles the Crab-boy, and from the movie set to the tattoo parlor to Frankie the Finn. A concert for actors. "Len Jenkin not only has a vivid imagination, but he also has an artist's command of his craft." -New York Times "Len Jenkin has an unusual talent for reaching into shadowy places in the human psyche and coming up with evocative images." -Journal American (Seattle) "Jenkin's plays have plenty of plot and delicious language, but the transience of experience is the main theme that runs through Jenkin's work. He manipulates theatrical illusions with a playful manner that recalls Jorge Luis Borges, to disguise meditations on mortality." -Village Voice (New York) "Jenkin explores many of the raw nerve ends in our society; the deep need to believe an absolute, while at the same time reveling in the gratification of the present; the difference between titillation and satisfaction; the bizarre nature of reality; and the real nature of the bizarre." -Times, Seattle
KRAKEN explores the true-life encounter between legendary American novelists Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1856. Melville, in the midst of a spiritual journey to the Holy Land, stops to visit with his old friend Hawthorne, now the American consul in Liverpool. As they spend the evening together, they discuss and confront their, fears, failures, things of this world and the next, books and publishers, and all possible and impossible matters. "Len Jenkin not only has a vivid imagination, but he also has an artist's command of his craft." The New York Times "Len Jenkin has an unusual talent for reaching into shadowy places in the human psyche and coming up with evocative images." Journal American (Seattle) "Jenkin's plays have plenty of plot and delicious language, but the transience of experience is the main theme that runs through Jenkin's work. He manipulates theatrical illusions with a playful manner that recalls Jorge Luis Borges, to disguise meditations on mortality." Village Voice (New York)
An American chess master returns home for a defining emotional match with his challenging and unpredictable father, who years ago coached him to success. A taut, true and ultimately forgiving play about the negotiations we all make as parents and children, this intricate drama beautifully delineates the complexity that exists within the strict boundaries of a chessboard or a family. "An interesting mind bender that examines the love-hate relationship that a father and son have with each other and with the war game that defines them." -Jan Nargi, broadwayworld.com
While cruising for sex in a back alley, Paul kills a young man. He rushes to his sister's apartment drenched in blood, and she helps him cover up his crime. Her husband, Nicholas, is not pleased to see Paul as Paul was dating his best friend, Kevin, who has died of an AIDS related illness. Lori the mother of the murdered young man goes to her priest for comfort. It turns out she is having an affair with him. "QUESTA is a mystery play and a wonder. It has the excitement of a taut, packed thriller; it explores guilt, suffering and redemption with real depth. The talents of Victor Bumbalo - the comic charm, the moral courage, the range of characters - are in perfect accord." -Margo Jefferson, Pulitzer Prize-winning critic, New York Times and author of On Michael Jackson "Noteworthy talent abounds in Victor Bumbalo's poetic morality play." -Los Angeles Times "Intense and emotionally riveting. A well-written and gripping play!" -Cynthia Citron, K A B C (radio) "Riveting! Fascinating! Mesmerizing! ... Victor Bumbalo's vivid script ... QUESTA has a life of its own that will most definitely linger long after this run is completed." -Sarika Chawla, IN Magazine "Remarkable! Strong! Victor Bumbalo's dialogue is on the mark." -Jonas Schwartz, theatremania.com "Praise goes to Bumbalo's script for neither over or under doing anything and providing strong characterizations for all seven characters." -Tolucan Times
A factual dramatic account of the advancing history of the Brown v. Wade Supreme Court decision in counterpoint with the personal drama of Senator Strom Thurmond's unacknowledged mixed race daughter, Essie Mae Williams Washington.
A car crash. Three people dead. One of them naked. It's up to a detective and a police officer to figure out what happened in this supernatural upside-down mystery. "Only the waggish adobe theater company could pull off a light, pleasant show in which everybody dies in a hideous car crash. Playwright Jeremy Dobrish crafts a modern fairy tale in this supernatural comic treat. In separate vignettes, each of the three central characters takes us back in time through the events leading up to the aforementioned catastrophe, which is catalyzed by a mysterious magical dog who grants each person what he or she most desires. In the case of seventy-year-old Abe that wish is youth; in that of Cathy, it is to be seen as beautiful in the eyes of her husband; and in that of Jonathan, it is not to be seen at all - to become invisible. In a refreshing twist on a hoary formula, everybody is ecstatic and even fulfilled upon having his or her heart's longing instantly come true ... Dobrish's highly original script." -Trav S D, Time Out New York "It's a shaggy hound that uncovers the scent of truth in SUPERPOWERS, Jeremy Dobrish's upside-down mystery. A detective and a uniformed officer try to piece together a car accident in which the driver and two pedestrians, one of them naked, die. This procedural gimmick - the police remaining clueless to the end while the audience discovers what happened - was popular a century ago and is still fun." -D J R Bruckner, New York Times
EIGHT DAYS (BACKWARDS) travels in reverse order through the previous eight days in the lives of 13 urbanites as they navigate missed opportunities and surprise connections in pursuit of romance and revelation. "EIGHT DAYS (BACKWARDS) is a breezy, psychologically precise and pleasantly dizzying ninety-minute set of interlocking New York sketches about power, relationships and the unknowable agonies of fate. Jeremy Dobrish, who usually writes for his own adobe theater company, has created a series of light but sharply observed snapshots that, as the title says, work backward over eight days in the lives of eighteen casually and/or intimately related character ... this is a summer show-jaunty and clever enough to hit a few truths with impressive economy and a sense of possibility. The characters have a range of class and age and, ultimately, we care enough about them to wish we could wan their future selves about what we know is ahead." -Linda Winer, Newsday
A comical, anachronistic, and witty retelling of the Greek myth, composed "after Kleist by way of Molière with a little bit of Giraudoux." "The story of Jupiter's cuckolding of Amphitryon has come in a variety of theatrical styles over the centuries. Plautus, by all accounts, had great success with it as a burlesque for the Romans; Molière turned it into a farce, of course; Kleist made a romance of it; and Giraudoux fashioned it into a fantasy. In the new version, Mr Overmyer seems to aim for the sophistication of a Saturday Night Live skit, a sort of Classics Comics for the theater." -Wilborn Hampton, The New York Times
Eric Overmyer's remarkable adaptation of Ibsen's PEER GYNT, set in the Pacific Northwest and in South America. "Writing skills unequalled among American playwrights, [a] brilliant wordsmith ..." -Richard Stayton, Los Angeles Herald Examiner "A cosmically inclined theatrical court jester." -Mel Gussow, The New York Times "Overmyer is a dazzling verbal acrobat, as well as a serious student of pop culture. Both linguist and cultural anthropologist ..." -Michael Kuchwara, A P
Eric Overmyer's sparkling adaptation and synthesis of Beaumarchais's THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO and Ödön von Horváth's FIGARO GETS A DIVORCE. FIGARO/FIGARO follows the iconic characters of Figaro, Susanna, the Count and Countess Almaviva, and other favorites through the ups and downs inherent in all relationships - husband and wife, master and servant, family ties and the like. "Ödön von Horváth's magnificent 1936 FIGARO GETS A DIVORCE was conceived as a modern sequel to Beaumarchais's 1784 classic THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO and, naturally, has always invited comparison to the earlier work. In presenting the two in tandem, director Stan Wojewodski and adaptor Eric Overmyer have made the comparison easy and enjoyable and, remarkably, have created a single piece that occasionally shimmers with inspiration, acquiring an independent artistic identity." -Jonathan Kalb, The Village Voice "One of the more provocative productions to be seen in the last days of 1994 was the Yale Repertory Theatre's FIGARO/FIGARO ... a project that deserves more productions. It's full of rich possibilities." -Vincent Canby, The New York Times
A dreamy, meditative telling of the story of the father of ragtime Scott Joplin's rivalry with fellow musical genius Louis Chauvin. "Eric Overmyer is not a playwright who does things simply, so it's probably not enough to say that his latest theatrical conceit, THE HELIOTROPE BOUQUET BY SCOTT JOPLIN AND LOUIS CHAUVIN is a dream play. It's really three dreams wrapping themselves around one another like languid tendrils of opium smoke stirred by a ceiling fan. The first dreamer is Scott Joplin, widely heralded as the king of the ragtime composers, although when we initially meet him, slumped over a piano by the dim light of a Harlem morning, fame and inspiration are behind him, and his tortured mind is obsessed with sultry images of the 'poxy girls' in the House of Blue Light, a New Orleans sporting house he frequented as a youth. The second, more impertinent, dreamer is Louis Chauvin-Joplin's match, if not his better, in the art of syncopation-who had the misfortune (or the contrariness) to leave nothing behind him when he died of multiple sclerosis at twenty-six. The only concrete evidence of his genius is Heliotrope Bouquet, the slow drag two-step he wrote with Joplin, who saw to it that the sheet music got published. The third dreamer is Mr Overmyer himself, who has seized upon this fleeting collaboration and its few tangible details as the pretext for some graceful musings about the ephemeral nature of art and reputation …" David Richards, The New York Times "Resounding with the bittersweet mood and slow grace of the ragtime music it celebrates, Eric Overmyer's THE HELIOTROPE BOUQUET BY SCOTT JOPLIN AND LOUIS CHAUVIN is an elegiac fever dream of a play, a skillful weaving of fact and fancy played against a backdrop of memory, loss and the redemptive power of art… Overmyer's insertion of fantastical elements into conventional narrative has been used to comic, or at least whimsical, effect before, notably in his ON THE VERGE, OR THE GEOGRAPHY OF YEARNING. But in HELIOTROPE, the playwright spins this technique into a poignant composition peppered with moments of joyful release… Overmyer's rich, clever dialogue gives the play a sumptuous feel… Running under an hour and a half, HELIOTROPE is less like the ambitious ragtime opera that consumed Joplin's final years than the brief but startling collaboration that gives the play its name. Ending on a tentative note of hope and revival, Overmyer adheres to Joplin's musical tenet of 'sweet resolution' even as the cynical Chauvin's admonition lingers: 'Sweet resolution,' he tells Joplin, 'is the difference between music and life.'" Greg Evans, Variety
"PICK UP AX…has a smart, sassy script that's studded with bright, funny dialogue… Clarvoe's very hip script centers on the fortunes of two bright young men, Keith Rienzi and Brian Weiss, who have bootstrapped themselves from a free-wheeling, penny-ante operation into a multi-million dollar computer software corporation through Keith's inventive brilliance and Brian's business instincts. But at twenty-seven, Keith is losing some of his whiz-kid brain, Brian's financial pipeline is drying up, and their supplier is refusing to deliver vital microchips to them. Just when these two aging wunderkind are facing disaster, in walks…Mick Palomar, a slick operator armed with an M B A and a flair for old-fashioned extortion…" Richard Christiansen, Chicago Tribune "PICK UP AX is a fast, funny, entertaining play about a fascinating subject: the growing pains of the personal computer industry… PICK UP AX is likely to be an audience-pleaser because of the sheer exuberance and wit of the script…" Brin., Variety
At the height of the AIDS crisis, Adam searches for answers, comfort, and a new place for sexuality as he witnesses the decline and inevitable loss of his beloved best friend."Victor Bumbalo's ADAM AND THE EXPERTS may be the most important play to deal with the AIDS crisis in gay society since William Hoffman's AS IS and Larry Kramer's THE NORMAL HEART sounded their anguished alarms four and a half years ago. Since those two dramas were first produced Off-Broadway, thousands have died, and thousands more who have gotten AIDS fight to survive. Mr Bumbalo's play expresses a mood of exhaustion, fatalism and embattled determination that, as the decimation continues, has become an overshadowing fact of homosexual life. It has, at least, become possible, Mr Bumbalo's play suggests, to find some bitter humor amid the tragedy. ADAM AND THE EXPERTS is quite funny in a dry satiric way. Most of the humor is situational, deployed by the playwright to reveal the pathetic, ludicrous defenses that people adopt to shield themselves from terrifying realities ..." -Stephen Holden, The New York Times
In October 1983 a truck filled with explosives blew up in a Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 242 soldiers. SEMPER FI explores the aftermath of that terrorist attack on the Marine Lieutenant Colonel who was in charge. "Every once in a while, a script comes along that's so articulate, so well crafted, so free of cliches, you want to cry because they aren't all like that. Michael Brady's SEMPER FI is such a script…" Mary Shen Barnidge, Chicago Reader "…Michael Brady's fine new play SEMPER FI … a drama dealing with a Marine Lt Colonel caught between a rock and a hard place-he was put in charge of the Marine unit in Beirut right before it was bombed by the terrorist truck in 1983. Ironically, he had pleaded for tighter security before this happened, but was refused. Now it appears he'll be the scapegoat. Brady creates characters you'll really care about…" Mary Ann Nichols, WCRB-FM "…blind faith is the subject of Michael Brady's drama SEMPER FI, about the October 1983 bombing of the U S Embassy in Beirut… The play is the dramatic equivalent of the truck bomb that destroyed the embassy… The drama explodes with the emotional intensity of the event that took more than two hundred American lives…" Alicia MacArthur, The Salem Evening News
"Some shows have warnings for strobe lights. Some have them for loud gunshots. Some for smoke. MISSISSIPPI GODDAMN, a new play by Jonathan Norton should have one for intensity. Granted, anyone attending a play about civil rights pioneer Medgar Evers set in 1963 Jackson, Mississippi, should expect some strife. Blood in the battle for racial equality is no surprise, but friendly fire is. Playwright Norton sets expectations on edge by focusing on the fight from the living room of the black neighbors next door to the Evers' home. …playwright Norton's novel take in an unflinching pressure cooker…. Considering the intensity, can you handle it? Considering the history, how can you not? Playwright Norton takes this historical kernel and creates a world in which only [an] adolescent youth pursues [an] idealistic aim and she does it with reckless abandon. Everyone else has the more measured concerns that come with growing up and growing comfortable: family, job and property. Their position tempers their pursuit of racial equality, so much so that the people he is championing perceive Evers as a threat. On this score, the play transcends race and asks, `At what cost, comfort?' To that end, playwright Norton turns the comfortable environ against itself. With people driving by and knocks on the door, front and back, the middle class palace becomes a prison…. In a risky playwriting move, Norton moves the action four years back in time. As confusing as it is, some of the mystery of the first act is preserved by reserving the backstory 'till the second. Patterns emerge but by inverting the sequence, it comes off as discovery instead of predictability. Call it `The Prequel Effect'.… The tension mounts terrifyingly. There's even some visceral combat…. There are some changes, though. The Evers, Medgar and Myrlie, who we heard so much about in the first act, make their first appearance in the second…. The other great change is that Robbie is young and impressionable. As thrilling as the events of the second act are, a close second is watching the effect they have in forming her attitudes. It becomes its own play. This historical thriller is an ensemble achievement of the first order with long sequences building tension in both acts, but without its emotional base it would be a roller coaster ride that was fun for as long as you rode it and nothing more. Be among the first to see it, because it's going places. Just don't say I didn't warn you."David Novinski, TheaterJones
This adaptation of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales explores the bawdy humor of The Miller's Tale, The Merchant's Tale, The Nun's Priest's Tale, and The Wife of Bath's Prologue. Prochaska infuses The Franklin's Tale with a hefty dose of comedy as the characters navigate their way through a rocky coastline and an awkward love triangle.Faithful to the original, this text is accessible to a young twenty-first century audience for whom it may be an introduction to Chaucer's wise and gentle satire on love, marriage, and sex. "CANTERBURY TALES is not centered on sex but [it] does not shy from the pilgrims' raunchiness, and…it was taken directly from Chaucer's original stories of an odd-lot of women and men headed for England's famous cathedral… Adapter Reiner Prochaska has pulled off a marvelous script, translated into modern English; he begins with Geoffrey Chaucer's strange language that was spoken in his time, long before the age of Shakespeare, when England still paid homage to Rome and the pope. No religious overtones, let me reassure readers, creep into the tales of fellow travelers who are much more concerned with life's harrows and `country matters' than God's or the Vatican's doings. In that era, they could not count on sticking around a long time and that made every day precious. And that's what Chaucer captured and playwright Prochaska affirms."Roy Meachum, The Tentacle
"…It's as if Joseph Zettelmaier couldn't contain all his ideas into a single play. So he created a script that could accommodate a whole slew of dramatic agendas. In the end, it's as if he's wrapped up two plays into a single script. And the amazing thing is that both are pretty entertaining. The first act is an adoring and witty homage to film noir. There's a hard-drinking, down-and-out private eye, Frank, and the slinky dame who hires him to solve a murder. Turns out, she's one of four authors of pulp novels suspected of killing the agent who represented all of them. There are plot twists. And twists on twists. And loads of witty dialogue, too, as Zettelmaier walks an ever-so-fine line between homage and spoof…. Zettelmaier is a wonderfully facile storyteller. But he doesn't always play by the rules, which we discovered so delightfully [in] his play ALL CHILDISH THINGS… And then there's Act Two. Frank's investigation moves forward, but along the way, Zettelmaier finds a way to immerse us in each of the four writers' genres of pulp. It's a clever device. And it works, giving us more information about each of them than if he followed a more traditional exposition. There's the slinky dame-Desiree St Clair is her unlikely name-who writes romance novels, while Bradley Rayburn writes science fiction. (He's also an inventor, a pastime that provides a major plot twist late in the play.) Walter Kingston-Smith is a writer of so-called "hero pulp," while R A Lyncroft creates particularly gruesome horror novels…. …savvy plotting and clever repartee…"David Lyman, Cincinnati Enquirer
"Plenty of glamorous backstabbing, diva dissing and sexual double-crossing…has every right to claim the name Dynasty for itself. But the title character in Betty Shamieh's bouncy, bumpy comic melodrama is the real thing. A queen, I mean, and not just of the self-dramatizing type. Scratch that. She's more than a queen. She's a pharaoh, one Hatshepsut, who reigned over Egypt for 20 odd years in the 15th-century B C, and the distinction is important in a time when women rarely ruled, at least not officially. (Ancient days, huh?) A subversive speculation on the nature of power!"Ben Brantley, The New York Times "Funny, both witty-Shamieh's sharp-tongued women lacerate one another and their shared opponents-and farcical! FIT FOR A QUEEN may have attracted attention due to its election-season parallels…but it's Senenmut who is [Shamieh's] favorite kind of antihero: the oppressed subject who refuses to play angel, the recipient of horrors who manages to deliver some horrors of her own. She's bundled contradictions, as the best-written characters always are: power-hungry but empathetic; hardened through experience but naive enough to be betrayed; often the smartest person in the room, so always surprised when she's outwitted." Harvard Magazine "If the premise sounds like a history lesson, this play delivers a hilarious, beautifully written tale of what it takes to be a woman in power and how absolute power does inevitably corrupt absolutely…the writing is both poetic and powerful and the comedy is intelligent and sharp. The wily Senenmut has an evil streak that rivals many a Shakespearean villain."Tribeca Trib "FIT FOR A QUEEN reveals the life and reign of Hatshepsut in a way never before explored, thus ensuring Hatshepsut's name is not lost to the ages."Huffington Post
"It seems to me that for fertility in droll inventions, the perpetual outpouring of unforeseen misunderstandings, for the inexhaustible gaiety of dialogue, Feydeau's new play is superior to everything he's written so far. The most astonishing thing is the sureness with which everything is controlled, explained, justified, in the most extravagant buffoonery. The cross-purposes rebound non-stop, and every time one is introduced, one thinks, `Yes, that's true, it couldn't happen any other way.' There is no idle detail, not one that hasn't its function in the action, not a word which will not have, at a given moment, its repercussion in the comedy, and this word, I don't know how it's done-it's the gift of the dramatist-sinks into the memory, and reappears just at the moment when it has to cast a vivid light on an incident, which we did not expect, but which seems entirely natural, which charms us both by its unpredictability and by our impression that we did predict it… The first act lasts no less than an hour, and there isn't a moment's boredom; the absurdities burst one after another with a marvelous abundance and intensity. I have seen nothing like it." Francisque Sarcey, Le Temps
"A raunchy riff on Dr Seuss's yuletide tale… The little tyke has become a bottle-blonde adult who spends her days in a trailer appointed with Airstream functionality and seasonal kitsch…brassy, very funny…a holiday offering that dirties up Christmas while ultimately reveling in its spirit." Elisabeth Vincentelli, New York Times "This irreverent, adults-only sequel…dares to be as tasteless as possible while replicating Seuss's trademark rhythms…flawless…juggling comedy, musical interludes, and audience interaction." Regina Robbins, Time Out New York "Though the years haven't been kind to Cindy Lou…the booze-guzzling, cigarette-sucking bleached blonde stays lovably upbeat…a comical riot, shining with moxie-laden tastelessness and irreverence. [Cindy Lou] engages front row audience members, sings with gutsy verve and even raps a bit. After an hour of lunacy, a sweet, sentiment ending is added, sending audience members off with a warm smile and probably exhausted from laughter."Michael Dale, Broadway World "In Matthew Lombardo's one-woman show, Cindy Lou Who is all grown up-and she isn't quite the adorable child you remember from Dr Seuss's classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas! Chronicling the forty years that have passed since Cindy caught the Grinch in her living room, Lombardo's sixty-minute R-rated comedy, spoken entirely in rhyming couplets, is a comic tour de force."Carey Purcell, The Village Voice "The funniest Christmas show in town!"BroadwayBox"If your fond childhood memories include Dr SeussThe Grinch, his dog Max, and a Ville filled with WhosYou might like a sequel from 40 years henceThough if you're a Grinch, too, you might take offense.The new play WHO'S HOLIDAY! by Matthew LombardoIs strictly R-rated, so don't bring your kiddoYet if your mind's open and you trust rave reviewsHis Off-Broadway treat will come as good news!Cindy Lou's now a grown-up, with all that it bringsCocktails and cursing and smokes are her things.She's led an adult life that's chock full of spiceHer shocking backstory's more naughty than nice.She's hosting a Christmas Eve fête for her friendsIt's her way of trying to make some amendsFor all that she did before going to jailWill the party succeed, or will it just fail?At the ending we're left with a serious thoughtWhich underscores all of the laughter she wroughtThat 'white trailer trash' Cindy Lou just needs kindnessIt's good that WHO'S HOLIDAY!'s here to remind us."Deb Miller, D C Metro Theater Arts
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