There are times when the truth matters less than what shocks people — what plays into their fears and suspicions and spurs them on to outrage. This is particularly clear as of late in our Oxford Dictionary-declared post-truth era. A play about a compulsive liar who remorselessly ruins lives by playing on people’s paranoia is […]
Anyone who has lost a child or a sibling to premature death finds the experience inexplicable and unique, and even parents who lose the same child together will cope differently from each other, sometimes driving a wedge of mutual incomprehension between them. No one can truly understand the grief of another person, no matter how […]
For the dancers at Festival Ballet Providence, the year’s production of The Nutcracker will be remembered as the year “The Grinch Tried to Steal Misha’s Nutcracker.” For nearly 20 years, the company has been staging artistic director Mihailo “Misha” Dujric’s version of this holiday classic. About one week before Thanksgiving, Djuric and his assistant went to […]
I must admit that my jaw dropped when I opened my program and saw there were over 30 people involved in The Radioactive Theatre Company’s holiday show Carol’s Christmas. While the cast was, to borrow from our President-Elect, “YUGE,” the Artic Playhouse is most definitely not, and I was wondering how director David McLoud, […]
A Gentleman’s Guide To Love and Murder is a clever comic confection with wonderful songs and excellent performances. Kevin Massey is tremendously appealing as Monty Navarro, a man who kills his relatives to gain the title of Earl of Highhurst. Monty’s recently departed mother was a member of the wealthy D’Ysquith family, according to Miss […]
Apocalypse Now, based on the Francis Ford Coppola film, is set during the Vietnam War and examines the impact violence has on a man’s soul. Director Shane Inman adapted the story for the stage and has done a masterful job of capturing the fear and confusion that afflicts the soldiers who are asked to fight an […]
Okee dokee folks … I had the opportunity to experience the musical Once on its first night of a four-show run at the Providence Performing Arts Center. I needed to let it percolate in my brain for a few days and contemplate what I really thought about the show before I wrote this. Initially I […]
Hecuba is a modernized retelling of the classic tragedy by Euripides. In this first-rate production at Brown, the titular character is the Queen of Troy. Throughout the story there were sometimes graphic depictions of the horrors of war and the inhumanity of man. Hecuba’s (Maya Blake) beloved city has been destroyed by the Greek […]
In a recent Twitter poll conducted by the National Weather Service, 70% of respondents voted they would welcome a Christmas Eve snowstorm if it meant a white Christmas. But, if you are truly “dreaming of a white Christmas,” Ocean State Theatre Company’s production of Irving Berlin’s holiday classic White Christmas just might have to do. Making […]
It is hard to find someone who hasn’t heard of Kevin Broccoli or his theater, Epic Theatre Company. They are known for taking risks and experimenting with the art of theater, and their newest selection, James Franco and Me, certainly fits that bill. You may not think that a two-person show where the playwright has a conversation […]