Criticism

Jen Gushue reflects on the visceral work of Irish playwright Enda Walsh. 

Jonathan Mandell looks at six theatre pieces in January that used words in unorthodox ways—as gibberish, or out-of-sync with the action; some didn’t use words at all.

Can friendships survive a separation in time, values, and life choices? Carey Purcell looks at the quiet questioning of the role of women in Sheila by The Associates.

Off the Rails, which was produced at OSF in October, shows how Native plays can include depictions or descriptions of Native history as an element of lived experience, not as the entirety of the play’s purpose.

This month Jonathan Mandell looks at A Room in India by French company Théâtre du Soleil, which considers the question ‘If all theatres were demolished tomorrow, would anybody miss them, and for how long?’

Holly Derr interrogates green(drama)turgy at Oregon Shakespeare Festival and how stories can be used to reconnect people to their physical world.

Jonathan Mandell gets a grip on Glass Guignol: The Brother and Sister Play, a mashup with Tennessee Williams, Mary Shelley, Lord Byron, and cockroaches—the debut production at the Mabou Mines Theater.

Precious Yamaguchi takes part in Take Them Into the Dirt, a participatory production at OSF about legacy, storytelling, memory, and identity.

Thirty years after M. Butterfly opened on Broadway, Jen Gushue interviews playwright David Henry Hwang about the 2017 revival.

Williams and Shakespeare at The 12th Annual Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival.

Jonathan Mandell takes on two recent plays based on real events, considering productions of Ferguson and The Siege.

Is sexual assault a daring subject for satire? Cassidy Dawn Graves considers Michael Yates Crowley’s The Rape of the Sabine Women, by Grace B. Matthias and how satire may be the perfect tone to portray the empowerment of the disempowered.

Enterprise is a satire of American business-speak that is also a critique of capitalism.

Dragon Lady, written and performed by Sara Porkalob, brings bring race, female stories, and intersectionality into the American theatre conversation.

What is the significance of staging Coriolanus in Sao Paulo where the new mayor is a businessman who was the host of two seasons of the Brazilian version of TV show The Apprentice?

Jonathan Mandell looks at three plays about caregiving on stage recently in New York.

Shelby-Alison Hibbs analyzes Matthew Paul Olmos’ so go the ghosts of mexico, part 2.

Laura Marriott considers The Eurydice Project in Dublin in the context of Ireland’s Repeal the Eighth movement.

P Carl talks with Taylor Mac about drag, aesthetics, gender, performance, and politics.

Brett Aresco discusses Radical Evolution's New York City production of Loving and Loving, inspired by the famous 1967 Loving v. Virginia case. 

Carey Purcell engages the complications of sex in The Sex Myth, presented at HERE Arts Center in New York City. 

Robert Hubbard reports on reimagining Shakespeare at the Minnesota Fringe Festival.

Jonathan Mandell runs down the recent past and present dramatization of dystopian novels on stage, including 1984, and asks whether what’s on stage is reflected in the political era that we are in now.

Maia Kinney-Petrucha examines the theoretical and applied science of creating empathy through theatre

Jonathan Mandell writes about Theater of War’s production of Antigone in Ferguson in Brownsville, Brooklyn.