By Ilana Jael If your first reaction to the prospect of seeing a play called Hedda Gabler is to think “Wait, who’s Hedda Gabler?” — well, then you and the protagonist of this 1891 masterpiece by Henrik Ibsen may have something in common. Furthermore, if I had started this review with an introductory sentence explaining that the play is called Hedda Gabler because the … [Read more...]
‘Pillowman’ launches Zoetic Stage season with acting brilliance
At the root of all good theater is simple oral storytelling. So it goes in The Pillowman, a series of short stories from the fertile, feral brain of Ireland’s Martin McDonagh, directed by Miami’s Zoetic Stage artistic honcho Stuart Maltzer with a cast of four worthy accomplices. Unlike his usual darkly comic folk yarns set in remote rural villages of his native land … [Read more...]
‘What’s Best for the Children’: Sharp topical comedy premieres at FAU Theatre Lab
Educating our youngsters --- deciding what and what not to teach them --- is a very serious matter. But apparently that news never made its way to playwright Idris Goodwin. For he has taken the subject of education in America today and turned it on its ear, examining the matter from an absurdist perspective in a jaunty little comedy called What’s Best for the Children, now … [Read more...]
PB Shakespeare Fest’s ‘Richard II’ persuades with strong lead performances
As my high school history teacher once drummed into my head, the only reason to study history is if it has something to say about contemporary times. The rule applies well to Shakespeare’s Richard II --- the first history play that Palm Beach Shakespeare Festival has tackled in its 32 years of existence --- a tale of malevolence. power and the uneasy transition of power. So … [Read more...]
PB Shakespeare Festival takes on ‘Richard II’ in its first history-play foray
For 32 years, the Palm Beach Shakespeare Festival has been exploring the works of its namesake playwright, but has avoided his history plays. Until now. From July 7 through the 17th, at Jupiter’s Carlin Park Seabreeze Amphitheater, and again at Royal Palm Beach’s Commons Park Amphitheater, July 21–24, the Festival will present the Bard’s Richard II, his first history play … [Read more...]
Lead performances lift iffy ‘Funny Thing’ at Primal Forces
When you grow up the daughter of cartoonist-playwright Jules Feiffer, the purveyor of comic urban neuroses, some of that has to rub off on you. So it has for Halley Feiffer, who juggled humor and anger in I’m Gonna Pray for You So Hard (seen two seasons back at GableStage) and, to a lesser extent in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gynecologic Oncology Unit at … [Read more...]
A chilling, first-rate ‘1984’ at Pompano Cultural Center
By Dale King George Orwell’s novel 1984 is a frightening piece of prose, a literary admonition warning of a perverse future world in which an omniscient state machine, Big Brother, exerts total control over society. To deviate in thought, word or deed could lead to torture or, more likely, death by hanging in a location where audiences gather to watch gleefully. Or, Big … [Read more...]
Sol’s ‘Christmas Carol’ sharp retelling of familiar tale
By Dale King Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, the author’s famous tale of a wretched skinflint who finds lifesaving redemption with help from some ghostly apparitions who mess with him on a fateful Christmas Eve in mid-19th century London, is back in Palm Beach County for a run at the Sol Theatre in Boca Raton. Director Christopher Mitchell has assembled a delightful … [Read more...]