I mean, it is a legitimate question, right?   After all, isn't the content of the plays and poems so much more important than any specifics of identity?  Yeah, there are some fairly obvious parallels between what we know of William Shakespeare's life in terms of (for example) Hamlet and Twelfth Night and The Tempest.  Still, wouldn't they be just as good if the author were unknown?  Just as the works of Homer are? Well, yes and no. And by "no" I mean the agenda of those who insist on the so-called Authorship Question.  These Oxfordians (or more generally An ..read more

 Spoilers ahoy!   Curiously, I have never seen a bad production of any play written by the late August Wilson.  Not sure why.  But it remains a lovely detail in my life in theatre--which I may have just cursed by mentioning it. King Hedley II, like the vast majority of his "American Cycle," takes place in the Hill District of Wilson's native Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  This one takes place squarely in the 1980s, when Reagan was President and White  Capitalist America was feeling especially good about itself while African America struggled.  One part of t ..read more

Spoilers ahoy!   The whole idea behind the new show at the Fountain Theatre is one of vast promise.  Conceived and directed by Stephen Sachs, and titled Fatherland, it recounts a true story using nothing but court records and public statements.  It focuses upon a Son (Patrick Keleher) who feels the need to turn in his own Father (Ron Bottitta) to the FBI for taking part in the January 6 Insurrection.   No one needs to guess at the amount of drama inherent in this.  A fear lingered, that the play would just be a polemic, preaching to me for things I already ..read more

Spoilers ahoy! Harold Pinter won the Nobel Prize in literature, which is way impressive.  As a writer he managed to write silences into his plays which were filled with meaning, and forced actors to plumb the text for meanings by having them say the same lines several times.  It makes for quite a challenge--one met magnificently by the latest production of Betrayal by Santa Monica's CityGarage. Frankly, been looking forward to this ever since they announced it on the schedule and even more when I read the cast. Essentially, the play tells the story of an affair.  Emma (Angela ..read more

  Happy New Year! Behold my list of the best half dozen plays I reviewed in 2023.  Usually this list is longer, but honestly I've been going through a lot this year.  Lost my twin brother.  Had a series of teeth removed.  Had to help a friend move to Las Vegas.  And directed a ten minute play for Fierce Backbone's Think and Imagine Festival.  Plus...well, a lot of things.  Good and bad.  Horrific and glorious.  Yeah, I watch the news. Twelfth Night (Burlesque) is honestly the single best version of my favorite Shakespeare comedy I've seen.&nbs ..read more

Spoilers ahoy! Until I saw this play, I don't think the name Lukashenko had ever registered with me.  He is a dictator in the land-locked country of Belarus, near Romania.  Playwright Andrei Kureichik was smuggled out of that country after the dictator cracked down on the country and all dissent in a big, big way.  Weirdly (in light of what has been going on in the USA), he held a sham election and this time people tried to call him out on that.  His reaction was brutal violence. Insulted, Belarus (translated by John Freedman) tells the tale, Reader's Theatre style, of ..read more

  Spoilers ahoy! We all know a terrible war (well, most of them qualify) is taking place between Russia and Ukraine.  CityGarage commissioned a play about this horrible series of on-going events from Ukrainian writer Andriy Bondarenko. Ghost Land, directed by Frederique Michel, emerges as a series of vignettes which at first seem to have little in common.  Yes they all deal with this particular war, and from the side of those whose nation has been invaded, but other than that... But this is almost deceptive.  Increasingly we see how all these emerge naturally from one ano ..read more

 Spoilers ahoy!  I do love a double entendre.  The play now playing at the Wildfire by Howard Skora has a good one.  Freud on Cocaine does indeed refer to the great scientist expounding about the benefits and (eventual) dangers of cocaine.  But he also does so while "on" quite copious amounts of the stuff. Sounds funny?  Good, because it is! The story, essentially told in flashback, focuses on a young Sigmund Freud (Jonathan Slavin) and two of the most important people in his life--his best friend Ernst (Aaron LaPlante), and his soon-to-be fiancee then wife Marth ..read more

 Spoilers ahoy! No one who knows me will feel surprise that I jumped at the chance to see a play about vampires. Fangs from the Downtown Repertory Theatre makes for an almost startlingly good night of immersive theatre.  "Good" mostly because it treats the subject matter seriously.  "Immersive" because it really is that.  Each attendee will experience a slightly different set of scenes as they are led to varying locations, watching the story unfold from individual perspectives. The town is Strigoia, some time in the last century most likely, in some Eastern European country ..read more

Spoilers ahoy!  I make no excuse for loving this particular play of Shakespeare's, easily my favorite of his comedies (and one I've seen dozens of times).  I also have zero problem with anyone deciding to "play" with the play, so long as what we get in the end works. Toil and Trouble Burlesque's version of Twelfth Night does indeed work.  Sometimes I almost wept with laughter and a couple of times I nearly lost my breath. Yes it is a burlesque.  Every single opportunity it seems for having somebody do a strip was seized upon (male and female).  More, since the venue i ..read more