on beckett
Currently running at 59E59 Theaters as part of the Brits Off-Broadway Series, Richard Bean’s 1999 “Toast” slices its way through layers of delicious intrigue to a tasty core of surprises that make the journey more than worthwhile. This is drawing room farce sans the drawing room. The swinging doors here connect the unseen bakery to the break room where the…
The current offering from The Director’s Company at the Duke on 42nd Street is a world premiere penned by Australian playwright Wendy Beckett entitled “A Better Place.” It turns out to be an urban synonym for the old suburban aphorism “the grass is always greener.” Only in this case, rather than a healthier lawn, it is a larger apartment in…
“With Blue – uncertain stumbling Buzz – Between the light – and me – And then the Windows failed – and then I could not see to see.” (Emily Dickenson, “I heard a Fly buzz” – No. 465) Anne (Kathryn Erbe) was “scared of [her father André] when [she] was little.” In the present – as he battles his advanced Alzheimer’s – André is more childlike, requesting Anne sing him…
Rehearsals began the week of March 31st for the world premiere limited engagement of “A Better Place,” a new work by playwright Wendy Beckett (“Anaïs Nin: One of Her Lives,” “A Charity Case”) and directed by Evan Bergman (“Jericho”), beginning performances Wednesday, May 4 and opening Sunday, May 15 at The Duke on 42nd Street, a NEW 42ND STREET® project…
Once upon a time there was a couple who, while vacationing in Vegas, decide to get married in the Little White Wedding Chapel. When they return home to Manhattan, Michael (played with a powerful vulnerability by Johnny Wu) assumes he will be able to move in to his new wife Sonya’s (played with the charming mix of feisty aggressiveness with…
“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” I Corinthians 13:13 It is a hard kind of love that haunts Hannah (Victoria Mack) and Zvi (Ian Kahn) as they attempt to navigate through their fractured relationship twenty years after their divorce. It is an issue of faith that apparently contributed to the…
Referencing the word “Abundance” in the dictionary, several meanings appear, including ‘an extremely plentiful or over sufficient quantity or supply,’ ‘overflowing fullness,’ and affluence or wealth,’ which all diligently support the aptly titled Beth Henley epic play. The current revival of this important work by TACT, now occupying the Beckett Theater, closely examines the plight of two brave, unrelated, young…
The NY International Fringe Festival is presenting “Ryan Is Lost” a new play by Nathan Wellman which is an intriguing, interesting and brooding two character drama. If one could imagine, it would be the offspring of “Waiting for Godot” and “The Zoo Story.” It is absurdly provocative as it slowly retrieves simmering emotions to the surface, allowing a boiling pain…
“Right now, it’s time for us to do something. If not now, then when. Will we see an end. To all this pain. It’s not enough to do nothing. It’s time for us to do something.” – “Do Something” by Matthew West What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Just ask the irrepressible Lydia Rauscher (Michele Pawk) come to visit…
“[Charlotte’s] come back to me. There’s nothing more right.” – Philip Graves to Mirabel in Scene Nine Bereavement makes for a strange bedfellow. It joins battle with the bereaved and insists on skirmishes with denial and isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, and (ultimately) acceptance of the death of the loved one. These incursions into the life of the bereaved are not…