hamlet
Depending on the point of view of the audience member, Jane Martin’s striking and deeply moving “H2O” can be viewed as either a play within a play or a remarkable retelling of the “Tragedy of Hamlet.” After its successful world premiere at the Contemporary American Theater Festival in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, the play is currently running at 59E59 Theaters in…
“There is no play and you know it.” – Michael to Anna ‘Clever’ morphs to ‘profound’ as film noire narration counterpoints with spoken word and played scenes, in Michael Laurence’s “Hamlet in Bed” a play within a play within a play. Playwright Michael Laurence constructs a fascinating and engaging retelling of the “Queen’s closet scene” in “Hamlet” (Act III, Scene…
“Charles, we must speak directly. I know that your career is not what it was because of the scandal. You were the young star and now all that is changing thanks to this problem. I will not let these nuns go free.” (Paul) Theatre-goers in New York City have the opportunity to see Ken Urban’s haunting “Sense of an Ending”…
“Who would fardels bear,/To grunt and sweat under a weary life,/But that the dread of something after death,/The undiscovered country, from whose bourn/No traveller returns, puzzles the will,/And makes us rather bear those ills we have/Than fly to others that we know not of?” – William Shakespeare, “Hamlet,” Act III, Scene I “Puzzle the Will” (part of Hamlet’s epic soliloquy…
Classic Stage Company’s “Hamlet” might just be the definitive “Hamlet” for the twenty-first century. Staged with shimmering creativity, the iconic Shakespearian tragedy bristles with a contemporary edge firmly rooted in tradition. The castle in Elsinore here is a swanky mansion with a designer dining table, bar, and contemporary seating areas. The platform, the room of state, Polonius’s house, the churchyard,…
Anyone attempting to assist students (high school or college) grapple with the multi-layered meanings in William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” ought to be banging down the door of Classic Stage Company’s box office to schedule a performance for their classes before this scintillating and often disturbing production of the Bard’s classic closes on Sunday November 10, 2013. The rest of…
On Tuesday May 14, the SoHo Playhouse hosted a talkback following the performance of the critically acclaimed “The Drawer Boy” by Michael Healey. The topic of the talkback was “The Making and Fate of Off-Broadway.” Ironically, just two days following the talkback on May 16, The SoHo Playhouse and Artistic Director Darren Lee Cole announced the premature closing of “Drawer…
“So high you can’t get over it /So low you can’t get under it /So wide you can’t get ’round it /You gotta’ go in at the door.” – Traditional American Gospel Song In The New Group’s spellbinding production “Clive” at the Acorn Theatre, Clive the protagonist does all he can to avoid redemption (going in at the door), including…
In his seventeenth-century poem “On Time,” John Milton envisions humankind’s triumph over “envious Time.” Milton writes, “When once our heav’nly-guided soul shall clime, / Then all this Earthy grosnes quit, / Attir’d with Stars, we shall for ever sit, / Triumphing over Death, and Chance, and thee O Time.” Time (and all its vicissitudes) is the subject of “All in…