Performing Arts

The 17th-century never looked as wildly seductive as it does within the world of Aphra Behn. There’s a war in the background of Liz Duffy Adams’ Or, but more importantly, Behn—a spy, poet, and key feminist writer—moves in a social circle marked by cross-dressing and free love.

What goes around If you think that bureaucracy and red tape are absurd, Czech playwright Václav Havel couldn’t agree more. And in his Soviet-era satire The Memorandum, everything from language to human sociality becomes ridiculous. When office worker Josef Gross finds a memo written in the supposedly efficient Ptydepe language that’s impossible to discern, he […]

The romantic’s notion of running away with the circus was Steven Warner’s real life for almost four years. He lived in a train car, learned everyone’s role, and immersed himself in every aspect of production, even handling the animals.

Prison riot Even Shakespeare and John Fletcher knew that the rewrite of a Chaucer poem took some serious guts back in the early 17th century. Despite the potential for total demolishment of a poetic monument, the duo lets chaos run rampant in The Two Noble Kinsmen. What happens when two imprisoned cousins fall in love with […]

Slammer time In case the new Die Hard flick didn’t cut it and you still need your fix of action with little to no plot, World Wrestling Entertainment brings us RAW: Road to Wrestlemania a great one. All the big names, from the perpetually shirtless John Cena to the cleverly named The Miz and the mysterious Kaitlyn, are bringing […]

Nasal passages: Although Edmond Rostand’s theatrical classic Cyrano de Bergerac needs no other proof of success beyond the introduction of the word “panache” into the vernacular, the folks over at Play On! have done him another favor. In local playwright Peter Coy’s take, Mostly Cyrano, a troupe of actors prepares to tackle the gargantuan piece only to have its themes […]

Broadway has a knack for re-telling classic children’s stories, and one of the early big ones was Into the Woods. Four County Players is mounting Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s multiple Tony Award-winning show in the continued celebration of its 40 seasons.

Onstage, a fine-featured woman removes her skirt, collapses her bustle, and adjusts the corset nipping her waist. Her hands are pale and flighty as she sits on the doctor’s bench and pulls a medical drape up to her chin. Diagnosed with hysteria, a Victorian umbrella term for ailments including headaches, light sensitivity, and predisposition to […]

“Originally it was the idea of taking an old science fiction premise that wasn’t very good, and using it as a basis for sketch comedy,” Jones said. “But then I found this movie, that had everything I wanted.”