Book reviews by Kitty Drexel
(New York, NY/Somerville, MA) On occasion, the New England Theatre Geek will review newly published plays. Miss You Like Hell is a musical about an mother/daughter road trip. Mary Jane is a loving insight into compassionate primary caregivers. Uncle Vanya is a piece of classic dramatic literature that places the significance of the #metoo movement within an historical context. Continue reading
Photograph credit: Kalman Zabarsky
Presented by Boston Playwright’s Theatre
Written by Monica Bauer
Directed by Megan Schy Gleeson
October 30-November 22, 2014
Boston Playwright’s Theatre
Boston, MA
BPT on Facebook
Review by Noelani Kamelamela
(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
Photo Credit: Apollinaire Theatre Co Facebook Page
Presented by Apollinaire Theatre Company
by Bertolt Brecht
Directed by Danielle Fauteux Jacques
Mary O’ Malley Park
Chelsea, MA
July 10th – July 27th, 2013
Apollinaire Theatre Co Facebook Page
Review by Craig Idlebrook and Kate Longberg-Lew
(Chelsea) Having grown up Catholic, I can spy a morality play when I see it. We used to do some painfully bad skits in church class on the subject of good and evil…think a “very special” episode of Family Ties, without the acting. It felt good, almost ritualistically cleansing, to present a moral world to an audience. Continue reading
Photo credit: Apollinaire Theatre Company
by Anton Chekhov
directed by Daniella Fauteux Jacques
presented by Apollinaire Theatre Company
Chelsea Theatre Works
189 Winnisimmet Street
Chelsea, MA
October 10th – November 4th
Apollinaire Theatre Company Facebook Page
Review by Craig Idlebrook
(Chelsea) I believe I once read that the sitcom Seinfeld didn’t last more than a season in Russia. Now I know why. Russia already had its Seinfeld; his name was Anton Chekhov, who writes brilliantly about all light and no heat. If you would like to chuckle and grimace about the painful foibles and imagined slights of the human condition, then you should catch the Apollinaire Theatre Company’s imaginative and spirited production of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya. But be warned, their lives might look painfully similar to your most dysfunctional family Thanksgivings. Continue reading
John Kuntz as Uncle Vanya, Marissa Rae Roberts at Elena, Photos: Danielle Fauteux Jacques.
Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekov, Apollinaire Theatre Company, Chelsea Theatre Works, 12/29/11-1/22/12, http://www.apollinairetheatre.com/index.html. Live gun fire in close proximity (blank gun)
Reviewed by Becca Kidwell
(Chelsea, MA) It’s like being at your family’s holiday party, except for the relief that it’s not your family. Words fly and passions rise as the audience travels from room to room glancing at the private moments of Vanya’s family. Youth and beauty contrast with the harsh realities of country living as love and hope are thrown about bouncing from wall to wall. Continue reading
