Gross Misconduct: the writer overplays her hand
This play could have been more than it is. In Meghan Gardiner’s Gross Misconduct, Deke, who’s been in jail for a long time—and who, incredibly, seems to have had a two-bunk cell to himself for years—finds out that he’s got a cellmate all of a sudden: a young guy named...
Jesus Christ: The Lost Years. Why?
There’s nothing seriously wrong with Jesus Christ: The Lost Years. And there are some things that are majorly right. I’m just not super clear on why it exists. In this hour-long show, writers Ryan Gladstone, Katherine Sanders, and Bruce Horak imagine what Jesus might...
Reverberations: intermittent seismic activity
One of the sections in Reverberations, an installation/performance piece by Brian Linds, knocked me out. In Reverberations, Linds, who has worked primarily as a sound designer for the past several years, explores his family history through five pieces that are all set...
Jesus Freak (or Atheists are Assholes)
There are several plays going on at once in Jesus Freak. One of them is good. In the story, a liberal family gathers for Easter weekend in their getaway home on one of the Gulf Islands. Susan and Alan’s adult daughter Clara, who is pursuing post-graduate studies in...
The Good Bride: not so good
I took little naps in the blackouts between scenes: when the lights went down, so did my eyelids. That’s because sweet nothing happens for at least the first 85 minutes of The Good Bride’s 100-minute runtime. And I’m not just talking about the dearth of plot; there is...
The Shoplifters: return it
Morris Panych’s The Shoplifters is so slight that it almost doesn’t exist—although it does contain the beginning of an idea. That idea is that raw capitalism is unjust. Dom, a zealous security guard who’s training in a Superstore kind of place, apprehends a savvy old...
The Amish Project—without the Amish
The Amish Project is a sentimental fictionalization of a tragedy. In 2006, a shooter entered a school in the Amish community of Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania. He held ten girls hostage and shot eight of them, killing five. The Amish responded with forgiveness, reaching...
Revisor: conceptually seductive, emotionally not so much
I was dazzled by the skill, intellectually intrigued, and emotionally and viscerally removed. With Revisor, writer Jonathon Young and choreographer Crystal Pite sink deep into Nikolai Gogol’s play, which is best known as The Inspector General....
Yoga Play: steady that pose
If only it had a middle. Yoga Play has an enticing beginning and a meaningful conclusion. But, in between, it gets lost in low-stakes plotting. In Yoga Play, American writer Dipika Guha takes aim at the commercialization of an ancient ascetic practice. Think...
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