Oct 22

Beating Back the Leviathan of Mediocrity: “Pru Payne”

Karen MacDonald and Gordon Clapp; Photo by Nile Scott Studios.

Presented by SpeakEasy Stage Company
Written by Steven Drukman
Directed by Paul Daigneault
Intimacy Direction by Jesse Hinson
Featuring: Marianna Bassham, Gordon Clapp, De’Lon Grant, Karen MacDonald, Greg Maraio

Oct 18 – Nov 16, 2024
Boston Center for the Arts
527 Tremont St
Boston, MA 02116

Critique by Kitty Drexel

“The first thing I do in the morning is brush my teeth and sharpen my tongue.”

― Dorothy Parker

BOSTON — It’s another excellent production from SpeakEasy Stage and the last non-musical from director Paul Daigneault before he moves to different things. Pru Payne by Steven Drukman is at the Calderwood Pavilion through Nov. 16.

Pru Payne (New England grand dame, Karen MacDonald) is a New York theatre critic with strong opinions, a caustic wit and decades of education and experience who finds herself writing her memoirs when the play begins. She’s trying to write, but she’s experiencing memory lapses. Her son Thomas (De’Lon Grant) sets her up at a state-of-the-art research facility. There, Pru meets Gus Cudahy (Gordon Clapp), a salt-of-the-earth custodial engineer with a heart of gold.  Continue reading

May 07

“black odyssey boston”: Greek Myth Meshes Beautifully with African Diaspora

Brandon G. Green & Johnny Lee Davenport. Photo: Nile Scott Studios.

Presented by by The Front Porch Arts Collective & Underground Railway Theater
Written by Marcus Gardley
Directed by Benny Sato Ambush
Choreographed by Melissa Alexis
Music Directed by Alyssa Jones

April 25 – May 19, 2019
Central Square Theatre
450 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
black odyssey boston on Facebook

Review by Gillian Daniels

(Cambridge, MA) Brandon G. Green is Ulysses Malcolm Lincoln, a soldier who’s unmoored. Not just unmoored on the sea, but unmoored in time, place, and personhood. We follow him on a journey as episodic as The Odyssey with as much raw, mythic power. The classic epic has been broken down and rebuilt with a mosaic of African diaspora culture. black odyssey boston is truly an epic in that it is three hours of fantastical and strange adventures. It finds its way home, however, not when it tries to piece together every popular touchstone it can lay its hands on, but when it focuses on the human relationships of its characters. Continue reading