Presented by Greater Boston Stage Company By Christina Baldwin, Sun Mee Chomet, and Jim Lichtscheidl Directed by Weylin Symes Music direction by Tim Goss Featuring Paul Melendy and Debra Wise Violin: Tommaso Lorenson
STONEHAM, Mass. — Greater Boston Stage Company’s Dinner For One is a short but charming play about a grieving grand dame and her affectionate butler. It has expanded moments of prop work, physical comedy, unsettling puns and a broad range of accents. It’s a silly treat to dislodge the election panic curdling your stomach this presidential cycle. It runs in Stoneham through November 17. Continue reading →
Mishy Jacobson in Ada and the Engine. Photo: Nile Scott Studios.
Presented by Central Square Theater Brit d’Arbeloff Women in Science Production A Catalyst Collaborative@MIT Production Written by Lauren Gunderson Directed by Debra Wise Choreography by Judith Chaffee Featuring Kortney Adams, Diego Arciniegas, Mishy Jacobsen, and John Hardin
September 22 to October 23, 2022 Central Square Theater 450 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA
Critique by Kitty Drexel
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Lauren Gunderson’s Ada and the Engine at Central Square Theater is not either’s best work. Central Square Theater has produced better shows and produced better shows by Gunderson. Gunderson has written better plays.
Ada and the Engine is problematic, and the script has problems. It reorganizes the life of English mathematician Augusta “Ada” King, Countess of Lovelace to tell a unique story about the intersection of computational science and gender roles. It approximates Ada Lovelace’s life to continue the discussion about the uphill battle women face in STEM. Continue reading →
Presented by SpeakEasy Stage Company Written by Duncan MacMillan Directed by David R Gammons Dramaturgy by Rulas A Muñoz
Feb. 11 – March 5, 2022 Audio Description – February 19 at 8pm and February 20 at 3pm Open Captioning – March 3 at 2pm and 7:30pm South End / Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA 527 Tremont St. Boston, MA 02116 SpeakEasy on Facebook
Critique by Kitty Drexel
CONTENT ADVISORY: This production contains depictions of addiction and self-harm, discussions of sexual assault, an extended strobe light sequence, herbal cigarette smoke, and loud noises.
BOSTON — A friend once told me, despite the burden mental illness can present, that the brain is trying to help. The myriad painful symptoms I and many others experience as effects of mental illness are the brain’s way of facilitating, even normalizing the abnormalities of life. Sometimes, I’d rather it not.
Just because the brain is trying to help, it doesn’t mean the brain is actually helping. It takes tremendous discipline to correct negative behaviors and toxic thoughts and to learn new ones. Failure is inevitable. If it takes a village to teach toxic patterns, it takes another village to reinforce positive ones.
SpeakEasy Stage’s People, Places & Things running at the BCA is about addiction, mental health, the theatre, and identity. Emma (Marianna Bassham in a performance that will blow your mind) is in denial. She abuses drugs to cope with her performing career, her family, and the life that happens in-between. She’s on so many drugs when she collapses on stage during a production of The Seagull, it’s a miracle she isn’t dead already. Continue reading →
Produced by The Nora@Central Square Theater A Catalyst Collaborative@MIT Production Written by Lauren Gunderson Directed by Bryn Boice Dramaturgy by Julie-Anne Whitney Voice & text direction by Christine Hamel Starring Lee Mikeska Gardner & Debra Wise
November 11 – December 12, 2021 Central Square Theater 450 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139 CST on Facebook
Digital streaming: The digital stream of The Half-Life of Marie Curie is available from November 28 to December 26, 2021.
Review by Kitty Drexel
Cambridge, Mass. — The Half-Life of Marie Curie presented by The Nora Theatre Company is a platonic love story between two adult scientists separated by distance and their fields. It’s a show to see with your best friend. It is warmly written and bravely acted.
In the summer of 1912, two-time Nobel Prize winner Marie Curie (Lee Mikeska Gardner) hermited herself with friend and confidant Hertha Aryton (Debra Wise who entered wig first), renowned mechanical engineer. Curie was hounded by pigeonous journalists for daring to love in her widowhood. Aryton opened her seaside home to Curie and her daughters. They spoke of science, nature, womanhood, and many other things. Continue reading →
Presented by Underground Railway Theater
By Kate Hamill
From the novel by William Makepeace Thackeray
Directed by David R. Gammons
Fight coordination by Victor Ventricelli
Dialect coaching by Erika Bailey
Dramaturgy by Hilary Rappaprt
January 23 – February 23, 2020 Central Square Theater
450 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
Central Square Theater on Facebook
Critique by Kitty Drexel
Cambridge, MA — William Makepeace* Thackeray’s Vanity Fair postdates Voltaire’s Candide by almost 100 years. Kate Hamill’s Vanity Fair now at Central Square Theater compares strongly to the famed Bernstein operetta. One could expect the human race to have evolved to squabble over different intersocial problems after nearly a century. One would be wrong. Continue reading →
Produced by The Nora Theatre Company & Underground Railway Theater; A Catalyst Collaborative@MIT Production; Design by Bird Graphics.
Presented by Central Square Theater Produced by The Nora Theatre Company & Underground Railway Theater By Nick Dear From the novel by Mary Shelley Directed by David R. Gammons Dramaturgy by Hilary Rappaport Ensemble: Remo Airaldi, Omar Robinson, John Kuntz, Ashley Risteen, David Keohane, Debra Wise
Trigger warning: rape, violence, body horror, strobe effects, spoilers
Critique by Kitty Drexel
(Cambridge, MA) Prometheus stole fire from Mount Olympus and gave it to mankind. For his indiscretion, Zeus condemned the Titan to an eternity of epic liver failure (a complication of eagle hunger). Shelley’s novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus warns a relatively modern audience not to play with fire lest one get burned. It plays out similarly in contemporary Halloween favorites such as The Rocky Horror Show and Prometheus that frustrating movie by Ridley Scott. It takes new form as Central Square Theater’s current production. As long as there is science, there will be humans poking around where they shouldn’t be poking.Continue reading →
September 24 – November 15, 2015 Central Square Theatre
450 Massachusetts Ave Cambridge, MA
Central Square Theatre on Facebook
Review by Danielle Rosvally
(Cambridge, MA) Even as I sit here staring at a blank page, I am having trouble putting into words the experience of seeing Einstein’s Dreams at Central Square Theatre. What I know for a certainty is that I can extend to the piece the highest comment that this reviewer can give: it sparked discussion, and it made me think. Continue reading →
(Boston) Boston Playwright’s Theatre deftly handles heavy subject matter to thoroughly explore one family’s patterns in Chosen Child. Cleverly overcoming technical limitations, intertwined histories emerge and recede amidst light and shadow in this production. Continue reading →
Dafydd ap Rees (Mick Ross) and Allyn Burrows (Alan Turing) in Hugh Whitemore's BREAKING THE CODE through May 8. Presented by Catalyst Collaborative@MIT. Performances at Central Square Theater at 450 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge. Tickets and Information: http://CentralSquareTheater.org or 866-811-4111. Photo by A.R. Sinclair Photography.
Intelligence is a prized commodity that governments and businesses appropriate for their own needs, but don’t always appreciate the ones who provide it. Alan Turing was loved by Great Britain for his decoding work during World War II and was derided for his failure to conform to social norms after the war. Breaking the Code masterfully explores the isolating nature of “polite” society.
Underground Railroad Company and Catalyst Collaborative@MIT bring the audience into the world of Alan Turing’s mind and memory. Performed in the round, the audience literally steps into Janie Howland’s set of inverse geometric spirals as they take their seats. Strings across the walls and ceiling connect formulas and ideas. Following the idea of the spirals, director Adam Zahler has Turing (played by Allyn Burrows) follow these patterns as Turing moves through the various moments of his life. The set and the action become an extension of Alan Turing’s personality. Continue reading →
