Terry Shea

“We must not look at goblin men, We must not buy their fruits: Who knows upon what soil they fed Their hungry thirsty roots?” “Come buy,” call the goblins Hobbling down the glen. – Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti Rebecca Maxfield’s Head Trick Theatre concludes its 2018-19 season with Goblin Market, the musical theater adaptation […]

For those who prefer their Shakespeare done “traditionally,” times are tough. The idea of what constitutes traditional staging of Shakespeare’s work is elusive, at best, since at least eight of his scripts have no defined time period and “traditional,” in most people’s minds, comes down to tights and some sense of Elizabethan trappings. Whatever stance […]

Each new adaptation of A Christmas Carol or Wonderful Life carries the burden of creating something fresh, bold, innovative and memorable. Then, there are the holiday plays that need no prompting to be different. Among these is William Gibson’s 1975 acid flashback Christmas pageant The Butterfingers Angel, Mary & Joseph, Herod the Nut, & the […]

Motif’s latest issue includes a spread on all of the dueling versions of A Christmas Carol and It’s a Wonderful Life, and makes mention of *one* alternative Christmas production (Barker’s Butterfingers Angel…). However, we kept digging deep into the stocking and, lo and behold, a couple of gems remained behind after the initial frenzy of […]

A few years back, Motif took a look at the RI theater holiday season and determined that the plethora of Dickens offerings amounted to one of two things – a cynical cash grab or a once-a-year experience not unlike the “Chreasters” who attend church once or twice a year and call it good. The jury […]

  A touch of the familiar is always welcome, especially when an institution like The Gamm opens its doors in a new city with an entity as unfamiliar to most audiences as Tennessee Williams’ The Night of The Iguana. The sprawling, operatic epic, (which was recently staged at American Repertory Theater, to mixed reviews) is […]