Viola’s Room Art Installation by Punchdrunk The Shed August 10, 2025 Production website 💉💉💉 out of 5.
Technically, Viola’s Room is NOT theatre in that there is no interaction between a live audience and a live performer. It is truly an art instillation with a story that is promising to have a bit of a “play” to it. Created by Punchdrunk, the company that created the long-running hit Sleep No More, it is a sensory experience guided by the pre-recorded voice of Helena Bonham Carter, queen of the creepy.
The Weir Written by Conor McPherson Directed by Ciaran O’Reilly Irish Repertory Theatre August 3, 2025 Production website 💉💉💉 out of 5.
The Weir is not the type of play that you want to watch after spending a few hours of walking energetically through the streets of New York – only to find a dim well air-conditioned theatre – the play is so quiet that you can hear a pin drop. The Weir is a very quiet, very still and very much a show to be attentive and present to.
Trophy Boys Written by Emmanuelle Mattana Directed by Danya Taymor MCC Theater July 31, 2025 Production website 💉💉💉 out of 5.
Trophy Boys was a most novel, explosive, concentrated 70 minutes of classroom drama. Staged by Danya Taymor of both The Outsiders and John Proctor is the Villain, the play is amplified with dance moves, blaring music and flashing lights – here – not as successfully as in the previous two works. According to the playwright’s non-negotiable terms, her drama’s four 17-something male characters must be enacted by female, gender non-conforming and/or non-binary performers wearing schoolboy drag. The play is set inside the classroom at a private school for girls – all the classroom walls were covered with historical female icons.
Duke and Roya Written by Charles Randolph-Wright Directed by Warren Adams Lucille Lortel Theatre July 30, 2025 Production website 💉💉💉 out of 5.
Playwright Charles Randolph-Wright claims that he was inspired to write this play from a story that he read that spoke of a practice in Aphghanistan known as bacha posh – – a practice in which young girls dress up as boys to see out education and further to simply survive, “It stunned me (Charles Randolph-Wright). I thought, ‘I have to tell this story.’ I couldn’t get it out of my head.”
Prince Faggot Written by Jordan Tannahill Directed by Shayok Misha Chowdhury Peter Jay Sharp Theater at Playwrights Horizons May 30, 2025 Production website 💉💉💉 out of 5.
First off, this play really has a P.R. challenge with its name. Even the users at the theatre were reluctant to incant the word Faggot. Perhaps that was the goal of the production. BUT it is going to make it more challenging for the public. The premise of the story is based on the pre-adolescent pictures of the gay/transexual cast of Prince Faggot. They project these pictures at the top of the show and note that even in those very young pictures it was clear that they were gay. Then they quickly bring up a very cute, effeminate photo of Prince George. This leads them to speculate – only speculate – “what if we had a gay king”. How would that change things?
