USA Reviews

Writer: William Shakespeare Director: Celeste Moratti Reviewer: Adrienne Sowers As a Shakespearean standard, Macbeth is one of the best-known plays in the English-speaking canon. Even watching the most avant-garde, esoteric interpretation of the play, the footholds of plot and character are so culturally prevalent that it is difficult to get lost, which makes First Maria Ensemble’s relatively straightforward presentation of ...

Writer: Lisa Clair Director: Eugene Ma Reviewer: Adrienne Sowers Lisa Clair's new play The Making of King Kong, presented by Target Margin Theater, is an ambitious piece that examines racism, sexism, and classism through a darkly comedic portrayal of the creating of the film King Kong, directed by Merian C. Cooper and starring Fay Wray. Leaning into the problematic components of ...

Writer: Paul Mecurio Reviewer: Adrienne Sowers One of the most underused, and perhaps under-experienced, words in our culture? Sonder. The realization that everyone one passes/interacts with has as vivid and complex a life as themselves. For New Yorkers, the constant sharing of space tends to cause us to mentally isolate ourselves, to disengage. Other people become obstacles, traffic, demons who ...

Writer: Krista Knight Director: Matt Dickson Reviewer: Carrie Lee O’Dell The legend of selkies, shapeshifters who can take the form of a human or a seal, appears in mythology from Scotland, Ireland, and Scandinavia. The stories often center on a female selkie and a man who steals and hides her sealskin, trapping her in human form and keeping her under ...

Writer: Teatro Dramma Director: Ella K. Schneider Choreographer: Erika Baena & Tony Duran Reviewer: Adrienne Sowers A devised project years in the making, Teatro Dramma’s expressionistic Citizens of the Gray or The Dark Thing That Sleeps Inside Me, at Theater for the New City, is a singular experience. Using a variety of texts as the starting points in their devising ...

Hero’s House – Dixon Place, New York Writer: Lake Simons Director: Lake Simons & Matt Acheson Reviewer: Adrienne Sowers Making its current home at Dixon Place on the Lower East Side, Lake Simon’s Hero’s House explores the meaning of home and shelter through movement theatre, puppetry and music. This ensemble piece is an exercise in joyous exploration. The sense of ...

Writer: Bernard Pomerance Director: Ron Canada Reviewer: Adrienne Sowers One doesn't expect to write a negative review about a posthumous world premiere written by a Tony Award-winning playwright, but it’s 2018 and if we’ve learned anything, it’s that that which seems outside the realm of possibility is more plausible than previously imagined. Bernard Pomerance’s Spin Off shows promise in its ...

Writer: Jason Napoli Brooks & Rob Roth Director: Rob Roth Reviewer: Adrienne Sowers Rob Roth’s newest piece, SOUNDSTAGE at HERE Arts Center, is a complex fifty-five minutes. Utilizing live action, film, and live camera projection, the piece explores ritual, loneliness, loss, and chemical dependency. A camera on a track manipulated by black clad figures moving in the Butoh style reinforces focal ...