Theater

2734 results
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Munro: Questions without answers.

Theatre Exile's "Iron' at the Fringe (2nd review)

Like watching real people

Rona Munro's drama about a series of visits between an imprisoned mother and her grown daughter is deeply nuanced, gradually revealing more about each woman while the audience sits in judgment, like a jury.

Pamela Riley

Articles 3 minute read
Slusar: Prison story, feminized.

Theatre Exile's "Iron' at the Fringe (1st review)

No place to hide

In Theatre Exile's production of Rona Munro's Iron, the stunning proximity of a converted South Philadelphia garage allows the audience to peer voyeuristically into the psychological dissection that occurs onstage.

Norman Roessler

Articles 2 minute read
Beth Nixon and Alex Torra in 'Cankerblossom': Sartre said it all.

"Cankerblossom' and "Sanctuary' at the Fringe

Coasting on laurels

In their current Cankerblossom and Sanctuary, respectively, neither the highly regarded Pig Iron Theatre Co. nor Brian Sanders's Junk achieved anything worthy of anyone's time or money.
Jim Rutter

Jim Rutter

Articles 4 minute read

EgoPo's "Marat/Sade' (2nd review)

A setting that could drive you crazy

I've always dreamed of seeing Peter Weiss's Marat/Sade performed live, on stage. Why, then, did I leave at the intermission?

Articles 3 minute read
Spitko, Blatt: A literary text with attention to the body and to space.

EgoPo's "Marat/Sade' (1st review)

So you want real theater?

Taking up where it left off with last season's Beckett Festival, EgoPo once again thumbs its nose at Philadelphia's conservative theater scene with Marat / Sade. Crash-land this cruel concoction in the enormous Sanctuary space at the Rotunda Theater and you just might find the year's most terribly satisfying theater pleasure.

Norman Roessler

Articles 6 minute read
Jarboe, Tuomanen, Choinacky, and Jessica Hurley: Choose your adventure.

"Portmanteau' at the Fringe Festival

Choose your ideological baggage (before it chooses you)

The Applied Mechanics troupe typically encourages audience members to follow its characters. In the fascinating and intelligent Portmanteau, whom you choose to follow says something about your ideological leanings.
Jim Rutter

Jim Rutter

Articles 2 minute read

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Kreager (right) with McKenna Kerrigan: Revenge of the '70s.

"Freedom Club' at the Fringe (2nd review)

Assassins, past and future

Adriano Shaplin's Freedom Club attempts to link John Wilkes Booth's assassination of Lincoln in 1865 with a radical leftist commune's plot against a president 150 years later. It's an intriguing idea that misses the mark.
Jonathan M. Stein

Jonathan M. Stein

Articles 2 minute read
Pacek in 'Untitled project': A little bit of Piaf.

Fringe Festival's "Thom Pain' and "Untitled'

Child as father to the man

Patrons sifting through the Philadelphia Fringe Festival's 180 acts could ease their confusion by trusting the proven talents of Luna Theater and the 11th Hour Theatre Company. Both refreshingly tackle an old theme: how a grown man deals with the lingering effects of childhood trauma. Thom Pain (based on nothing). By Will Eno; directed by Gregory Campbell. Luna Theater Company production through September 19, 2010 at Upstairs at the Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St. as part of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. www.livearts-fringe.org/details.cfm?id=13647.
Jim Rutter

Jim Rutter

Articles 3 minute read
Kreager as Booth: If Jesus were here...

"Freedom Club' and Fugard's "Statements' at the Fringe (1st rev

Myth vs. realism in political theater

Must political plays be preachy and boring? The verdict is mixed for these two Fringe Festival productions.
Jim Rutter

Jim Rutter

Articles 3 minute read
Mulgrew, Letts, Joyce, Gibson: Spectacle over sense.

Mauckingbird's "Midsummer Night's Dream'

Shakespeare meets Lady Gaga

Mauckingbird's imaginative, gender-bending staging of A Midsummer Night's Dream offers a spectacle that the Facebook generation can sink its teeth right into, notwithstanding the limitations of Mauckingbird's scatterbrained approach to Shakespeare's text.
Jim Rutter

Jim Rutter

Articles 5 minute read