Springtime, 1916. Irish expatriate and soldier-turned-outlaw Trooper O’Hara is adrift in the baring woods of Southern Ohio. Thirty-some years away from home, Trooper’s leather face is furrowed, the fire of his hair all but extinguished by the darkness he has seen; he is a man changed by America. Having crossed the mark of middle age, [...]
Category Archives: Theater
Glass & Parwaz Playhouse
May 10, 2010 – 11:45 am
Cast and Crew of Parwaz Playhouse’s debut production, Glass.
New Yorkers often forget that the theater is a treasure. For when you live amongst the fixed twinkle of Broadway, the art of mimicking life can become as repetitive as a bodega or a yellow taxi. But the theater is not something that we should take for [...]
The Aliens
April 23, 2010 – 10:51 pm
Despite the darkness surrounding the three main characters of Annie Baker’s newest play, The Aliens, the show sustains a playful levity throughout much of its less than two hour runtime. Under Sam Gold’s direction, The Aliens is most alive when the two leads, a couple of thirty-something male vagabonds, and a seventeen-year-old restaurant employee about [...]
The Subject Was Roses
April 21, 2010 – 7:31 am
On Sunday, The Pearl Theatre Company unveiled the final show of its 2009-2010 season: Frank D. Gilroy’s deceptively deep The Subject Was Roses, which garnered the Pulitzer Prize in 1965. Wearing the uniform of the classic American family drama, Roses centers around the homecoming of John and Nettie Cleary’s veteran son, Timmy. Yet, [...]
Pat Kinevane’s “Forgotten”
February 23, 2010 – 10:27 am
Every once in a while, if we are lucky, we stumble upon a work of art so staggering that it whirls about our memories long after our initial encounter. Something about it, even if we can’t pinpoint what that “something” is (which, of course, only adds to its intrigue), resonates. A most curious kabuki-based play, [...]
Dickens’ “Hard Times”
February 15, 2010 – 3:58 pm
This week, the Pearl Theatre parts its curtains for Stephen Jeffrey’s page-to-stage adaptation of Hard Times by Charles Dickens. After sitting through the production, I contemplated suggesting an addendum to the Playbill. Perhaps, a WARNING on the cover: “This play is long, and the chairs are Amish in comfort level.” But, I realize that such [...]
David Mamet’s “Race”
February 15, 2010 – 10:10 am
James Spader, David Alan Grier and Richard Thomas in Race.
David Mamet’s newest drama, Race, currently showing at the Ethel Barrymore, begins with black attorney Henry Brown (David Alan Grier), of the high profile law firm Lawson and Brown, lecturing his potential client, the white and wealthy Charles Strickland (Richard Thomas), about black people. Charles has [...]
