René Grayre
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As You Like It — Hamlet Isn’t Dead

7/25/2018

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    Clever and fun
Delightful
Funny and fresh
Great ensemble
Great direction 



See it if
You're up for another refreshing take on Shakespeare by the always fun, inventive & energetic Hamlet Isn't Dead Company. This all-female version all sweetness & edge.
Don’t see it if
You don't like your Shakespeare cut, stripped down, joyously knockabout or simply fun and engaging. An As You Like It for our here and now.


Hamlet Isn’t Dead is a young, energetic and consistently inventive company committed to producing the entire Shakespearean canon — and in order. It’s also a company that always finds and presents a disarming amount of fun, joy and silliness along the way, all of which reminds us each time how fresh the originals must have been in their time. 
Little bits of modernity are usually tossed in, which only serves to remind us how timeless and yes, modern these plays still are after more than 400 years. The language just sings,  and it’s always something of a revelation.

As is their current all-female As You Like It, which literally sings with a great spirit and a terrific sense of fun, freedom, liberation and great camaraderie. Done in the round, the evenly matched ensemble constantly engages and includes the audience. The uncredited costumes were casually wonderful — no small feat — and the direction sharp and clever as usual. Only disappointment is the brief run; but maybe next time...

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Photos by Andy Ingalls
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The Saintliness of Margery Kemp —                                                   Perry Street Theatre at the Duke

7/21/2018

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​

Quirky
Ambitious
Too long
Fun but disappointing
Entertaining


See it if
You're up for a fine cast holding up a literate, well written if uneven but too-long script. 


Don’t see it if
You're expecting a full-blown comedy or morality tale, or dislike modern dialogue and attitude in medieval dress.


Strong, witty and surprisingly audible performances across the board from this solidly pro cast make the most of this wordy if literate script. Voices are casually projected with an ease and clarity that's rare these days, a relief to encounter.

With her range and energy, Nichols somehow achieves an over-the-top performance without ego and without ever going over-the-top; O'Connell, terrific in the recent Happy Birthday, Wanda June, again brings a surfeit of wit and presence to his several roles here; and the ensemble, doubling or tripling roles, brings great individuality to each.

In the end, though, Wulp's script ruminates much more than it declares, never quite finding its edge — or its point, for that matter. The mercurial Margery Kemp as written here never really changes. Vanity and self-regard intact, she never transforms, ends up where she started, having learned nothing except the value of good press, for posterity.
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Jason O’Connell and Andrus Nichols (foreground) with Micheal Genet, Timothy Doyle and Thomas Sommo Photo by Carol Rosegg
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Fire in Dreamland — The Public Theatre

7/20/2018

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​Intelligent
Terrific ensemble
Sharp direction and staging
Well written effortless dialogue
Refreshing



See it if
You're up for a compelling meditation on stories & storytelling; witnessing & being part of the stagecraft that makes it possible.

Don’t see it if
Unless you're looking for a perfect play, no reason not to. It's always a pleasure to see fine actors working well in layered performances.


Stories—hearing them, telling them, retelling them—are pretty intrinsic to our species. So here's a story about telling stories wherein a character embodied by the terrific Rebecca Naomi Jones tells us a story—and in so doing fills the stage and conjures up the oldest and most direct form of theatre. It's an ancient, wild, primal and almost tactile moment; a rare thing to see onstage these days, but Rinne Groff's script, with its effortless, spontaneous dialogue pulls it off neatly, in no small part because of the engaged, present and convincing cast.

​Jones, Enver Gjokaj and Kyle Beltran  work seamlessly, naturally, Marissa Wolf's direction sharp and invisible. A pity, then, that the slim present-day plot resting on the making of an indie film about the 1903 fire that destroyed the Poor Man's Riviera and its circus animals has to carry so much weight. Its emotional plot points are predictable a mile away, and the play never quite gels, but Jones' powerful performance just about pulls it through, and if you listen well, you might well be transported.

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Kyle Beltran, Enver Gjokaj, Rebecca Naomi Jones Photo: Joan Marcus
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July 12th, 2018

7/12/2018

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Actors inaudible
Slow
Unfocused
Indulgent
Anachronistic


See it if
You're up for good costumes holding up a  too-long script made indecipherable by an inaudible cast. Plot and character points lost upstage.


Don’t see it if
You're expecting a clear plot,  actors projecting or some idea of Amsterdam, 1943 or the Resistance in WW II. 

Who knew that a long night in 1943 Amsterdam could sound like Depression-era Memphis or New Orleans? And with a rap tune thrown in to boot? Only the three-word program note gives a clue.

It's difficult to know what playwright and lead Erika Phoebus had in mind here, since the cast, quite often drowned out by the competent if weirdly joyless onstage band, didn't project vocally, leaving plot and motivations muddled. Isaac Byrne's direction seemed to take a back seat to Phoebus's energy, leaving all lax, long and unfocused.

Still, the concept of Resistance assassins as "rusalkas" — seductive, dangerous female spirits (often mermaids) luring young men to their untimely ends — according to myth, is novel. Too bad, the dip into melodrama, compounded by many things, including that extra pistol in the prologue —  "Chekov's gun" may be an old
the theatrical concept, but it's certainly sound.

Phoebus and Elizabeth Kensek were well matched, even if Kensek seemed lost at times, and T.E. Hackett on drums held all together.


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Elizabeth Kensek, Harlan Short, Anna Stefanic, Erika Phoebus, Grant Parker, Ben Quinn, and Chris Cornwell in Rusalka. Photo by Felipe Beltran.
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Mummenschantz — You & Me                                                         Gerald Lynch Theatre at John Jay College

7/7/2018

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Entertaining
Delightful and funny
Visually striking and amazing
Inventive & imaginative
Edgy



See it if
You're up for a very fun bit of pure non-verbal theatre that transcends language and exercises the imagination. Silence and movement create 


Don’t see it if
Since silence and movement create their own expressive music and vocabulary, don't go if the idea bores or if kids around you intimidate.


It's amazing how quickly the human mind adapts to a basic vocabulary of the imagination, a universal visual tongue understood easily and instantly by children, and a little less quickly by those who’ve grown too “adult.”

This current iteration called You & Me is a little long, even at 80 minutes, which might have been quickened by sharper direction or deeper curating of their extensive repertoire, but that’s a minor complaint. The cast is in amazing shape physically, including Floriana Frassetto, the last original co-founder still performing, and the visual effects are still stunning, the troupe making themselves visible and invisible at will. 

Much has changed in the almost 50 years since Mummenschantz debuted — the original sketches were wittier, more adult-oriented and themed — but that says more about our modern, more reserved culture than anything else; children are pleased and most audiences won't remember. In any case, the toilet paper is missed.


Cast: Eric Sauge, Sara Hermann, Oliver Pfulg, Christa Barrett, Floriana Frassetto and Kevin Blaser

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