We live in a time when many theaters are still in a state of recovery from the crisis of closure and contraction caused by the pandemic. Fortunately, we live in a region where national tours are being launched, local venues are offering regional premieres of innovative plays, and local playwrights are getting their due in world premiere productions of their works. Slowly but surely, Ocean State audiences are returning to the fold. Here are five outstanding productions that brought people back to the theater in 2024.
The Motherfker with the Hat at Burbage Theatre
Jackie (Victor Machado) is fresh out of jail for drug dealing, confidently clean and sober, and in possession of a newfound optimism. But he is living in a world populated with hard-edged, long-suffering, and self-destructive addicts. When he walks into the seedy apartment he shares with his long-term girlfriend Veronica (Catia) and finds a stranger’s hat in the bedroom, things rapidly derail. What makes Stephen Adly Guirgis’ 2011 Tony nominated, one-act play so engaging is its abundance of profanity, which simultaneously serves as each drowning character’s flotation device and defensive weapon of choice.
The playwright arms them with enough F-bombs and verbal land mines to assault but never insult the audience’s sensibilities and, by way of creative application, raises street talk to a fken artform. According to the Motif review of the production at Pawtucket’s Burbage Theatre last June, the show was raw, raucous, and “brilliantly directed by Jackie Davis. How refreshing to see a play so moving and entertaining from the very first minute to the last!” Next at Burbage Theatre: Debbie Tucker Green’s Hang, a meticulously crafted threehander about one woman and the unspeakable decision she must face. Jan. 23 – Feb. 16, 2025.
La Broa’ at Trinity Repertory Company
Orlando Hernández’s La Broa’ is a charming and enlightening play inspired and adapted from the collection of Marta V. Martínez’s oral histories of the Spanish-speaking Mexicanas, Guatemaltecos, Colombianos, and Dominicanos who settled in Providence in the mid-20th century. It took to the Trinity Rep stage this past January for its world premiere production. Under Tatyana-Marie Carlo’s velvet-gloved direction and with some magical realism instilled by designers Amanda Downing Carney (costume), Patrick Lynch (scenic), and Christine Watanabe (lighting), the production “is as uplifting as it is poignant,” noted one Motif review. “All the actors in this ensemble deliver perfect comedic timing, but none more so than Alina Alcántara, who portrays Doña Rosa [the beloved matriarch of the Broad Street neighborhood].”
According to the playwright in his playbill note, this work “is a love letter to La Broa’, the other Latinx neighborhoods of RI, and the people who made them what they are today.” Judging from the reaction of those in attendance, we were all adoring co-signers.
Next at Trinity Rep: The world premiere of Michelle Cruz, Deborah Salem Smith, and Charlie Thurston’s Someone Will Remember Us, drawn from the true stories of Iraq War veterans and refugees now living in New England. Jan. 23 – Feb. 23, 2025.
Noise at Wilbury Theatre Group
According to American Theatre magazine, the fortunes of regional theaters don’t correlate only with the particular city where they’re located, but to each theater’s place within the arts ecosystem of a given city. In keeping with its unique mission to “engage our community in thought provoking conversation through new works, reimagined classics, and adventurous playmaking,” the Wilbury served up writer/ composer César Alvarez’s boundary-pushing, fourth-wall breaking Noise as its year-ending production. “Prepare yourself for something uniquely amazing” and “deeply introspective,” noted a Motif write up. The sold-out show, directed by Dante Green, brought together a baker’s dozen of like-minded musicians/actors who agreed that society wasn’t working. The root cause, they argued, was all the incessant and distracting noise of modern life. Since music is the organization of noise and the earliest known form of shared expression devised by civilization, this energized troupe – with string and percussion instruments at the ready, and with active audience participation – figured that it should be able to make some music that reflected a new and more livable society. This unconventional journey made for an intriguing evening of theater.
Next at Wilbury Theatre Group: The RI premiere of Florian Zeller’s The Father, a tragic farce about the loss of self. Jan. 23 – Feb. 9, 2025.
The Effect at Gamm Theatre
During the Great Depression, the Federal Theatre Project produced so-called “Living Newspaper” plays – part drama, part advocacy, part education – that turned current events like the American housing crisis into theatrical productions. Lucy Prebble’s The Effect is not of that era – it premiered in London in 2012, received an off-Broadway run in 2016, and played at Warwick’s Gamm Theatre this past October – but it is most certainly of that ilk. The hot topic it addresses is whether advances in neuroscience, psychiatry, and pharmacology bring us closer to understanding what it means to be human.
It is set in a progressive clinical drug trial, where the supervising psychiatrists, played wonderfully by Jeanine Kane and Stephen Thorne, hold differing positions about medical science’s ability to control and accurately measure our human qualities. And they disagree about the ethics associated with medically manipulating the subjects, played by the immediately endearing Gabrielle McCauley and Anthony T. Goss. This production took place on a barren black box stage and was largely dependent on Jeff Adelberg’s dramatic lighting and Hunter Spoede’s airy, omnipresent soundscape to establish a sense of place and social isolation. All this was masterfully orchestrated by director Steve Kidd. “It’s brilliant,” claimed one Motif review, adding “The Effect casts a spell over the audience, initiating ripples of conjecture and supposition that linger long after the 90-minute, no intermission show.”
Next at Gamm Theatre: The New England premiere of Dennis Kelly’s one-woman Girls & Boys, an unflinching exploration of love and the dark truths that lie beneath. Jan. 2 – 19, 2025.
La Ternura at Teatro ECAS
You can’t blame Alfredo Sanzol for borrowing the best of the Bard for his La Ternura, an “original” work that debuted in Barcelona in 2019 and played at Providence’s Teatro ECAS (recently profiled in Motif) in Spanish with English subtitles this past March. The play’s time-tested tropes were all Shakespeare’s, but the immense charm and creative retrofitting of this romantic comedy into the theater’s intimate performance space came courtesy of director Basilio Álvarez, who has steered numerous productions of Shakespeare’s comedies. Ramon Perez Pina’s scenic design consisted of a single set with a backdrop of paper mâché trees dramatically lit by Dean Palmer and Stephanie Cuervo. The story revolves around the enchanted, manhating (The Taming of the Shrew) Reina Esmeralda (Francis Parra) and her two daughters (Emeyra De Jesús and Jennifer Moreta), who are being forced into an arranged marriage (Romeo and Juliet). While in transit by sea, she causes a great storm that sinks the ship (The Tempest) and allows the women to make their way to safety (Twelfth Night) on what appears to be a deserted island. However, a woman-hating man (Francisco Gattorno) and his sons (Johnny Paulino and Carlos Dominguez) live on the island (Much Ado About Nothing). The play ends happily, as does every Shakespeare comedy, and the production demonstrated what a lot of talent on a small budget can accomplish.
Next at Teatro ECAS: Yo soy Minerva. (I am Minerva), a play by Mu-Kien Adriana Sang about depression and the lengths we will go to for those we love. March 6 – 16, 2025. •
Bob Abelman is an award-winning theater critic who formerly wrote for the Austin Chronicle.