Category Archives: 5 πŸ’‰πŸ’‰πŸ’‰πŸ’‰πŸ’‰ Rating

Our Class

Our Class
Written by Tadeusz Slobodzianek
Directed by Igor Golyak
Adaptation by Norman Allen
Classic Stage Company
October 13, 2024
Production website
πŸ’‰πŸ’‰πŸ’‰πŸ’‰πŸ’‰ out of 5.

This was a truly masterful piece of theatre and one of the best I have seen this year!Β Β It was a true story of the stage and used the experience of being on the stage with a live audience to the fullest.Β Β 1,600 Jews were massacred in the small Polish town of Jedwabne in the summer of 1941. Such is the starting-point for this play by Tadeusz Slobodzianek which follows recent research by attributing the slaughter not to the occupying Nazis but to the local community.Β Β 

Dark Noon

Dark Noon
by Peter Morgan
Written & Directed by Tue Biering
Co-Directed & Choreographed by Nhlanhla Mahlangu
St. Ann’s Warehouse
June 7, 2024
Production website
πŸ’‰πŸ’‰πŸ’‰πŸ’‰πŸ’‰ out of 5.

Experimental theatre can be a real risk.Β  It can either be the best of theatre or the kind of theatre that makes you want to chew your arm off to escape the trap of sitting there having to endure another hour of watching it.Β  Dark Noon was the very BEST of experimental theatre.Β  This group of South African actors (one white male, one black female, and the remainder black males) created a piece that set out to tell the history of white America from the founding of the country through the end of the Gold Rush and the Wild West.Β 

Enemy of the People

Enemy of the People
by Henrik Ibsen
a new version by Amy Herzog
Directed by Sam Gold
Circle in the Square Theatre
June 6, 2024
Production website
πŸ’‰πŸ’‰πŸ’‰πŸ’‰πŸ’‰ out of 5.

Enemy of the People was a lean, mean fighting machine of a play.  This new version of the play as edited by Amy Herzog resembles her production of last season’s Doll’s House in that it is a stripped down production that gets to the heart of the story in the fewest steps needed. All of the window dressing is gone.  The play uses the full theater-in-the-round experience that Circle in the Square can uniquely provide so you really feel close to the action itself. Of course, you do have the problem of the actors turning their back to you at times and the occasional chandelier that is in your line of sight, (I swear, I wanted to climb on stage and take that chandelier down, but . . . ) but this is a very small price to pay for this front row opportunity to see this drama. 

Illinoise

Illinoise
Music and lyrics by Sufjan Stevens
Book by Justin Peck and Jackie Sibblies Drury
Directed and Choreographed by Justin Peck
Ethel Barrymore Theatre
June 5, 2024
Production website
πŸ’‰πŸ’‰πŸ’‰πŸ’‰πŸ’‰ out of 5.

Illinois IS the perfect solution to the jukebox musical.Β  Although Illinois is based on the popular album Illinois by Sufjan Stevens this this time the album to live production works and works MAGICALLY and PERFECTLY. The central plot follows Henry as he leaves his boyfriend to join a community of storytellers somewhere in the woods of Illinois.

Here There are Blueberries

Here There are Blueberries
Tectonic Theatre Project
by Moises Kaufman and Amanda Gronich
conceived and directed by Moises Kaufman
New York Theatre Workshop
April 19, 2024
Production website
πŸ’‰πŸ’‰πŸ’‰πŸ’‰πŸ’‰ out of 5.

Based on real events, Here There are Blueberries tells the story of a mysterious collection of photographs that was set to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2007. The shocking discovery in these photographs taken at Auschwitz was that not a single picture was of a prisoner or a corpse. Every picture was of a soldier or a person employed at the camp. There, picture after picture – – was of office meetings, retreats, and even holiday celebrations. They showed groups of young, giggling women all working as switchboard operators manning the phones and communication channels for the camp. In short it presented the human, day-to-day side of the Germans in Auschwitz.