Reviews Archives

“Smart” at WHAT: Beautifully Chilling and Brilliantly Provocative

June 9, 2024

At a time when there are almost-daily reports of new and different ways artificial intelligence can change—and challenge—the way we live, I looked forward to the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater’s new production of Mary Hamilton’s Smart to issue a wry...

Angels in America at the Provincetown Theater is Beyond Heavenly

May 10, 2024

It may be ironic that a play essentially about death—framed in both the opening and final scenes—can feel so vital and filled with life and energy; but that’s the case with the new production of Angels in America now playing at the Provincetown Theater...

Our Town at Cape Rep is Strange… and Wonderful

May 7, 2024

You’ve probably seen Our Town before, if only as a—yikes— high-school production. Forget all that. Director Maura Hanlon’s version, which just opened at Cape Rep Theatre, is nothing like you’ve ever seen. And it’s absolutely fantastic. Our Town is...

Book review: Worth Fighting for (John Pavlovitz)

March 20, 2024

Like many other progressives, I’m finding it difficult these days to be optimistic, much less at peace, about the state of the world and of the country I live in. Everywhere I look, cruelty is on display. (And what is it, anyway, about cruelty that it seems...

Who Counts in America? “What the Constitution Means to Me” at the Provincetown Theater

November 17, 2023

I don’t usually tell you what to do. I am telling you now. Go see this play. If you need more reasons to vote, go see this play. If you care about the future of this country, go see this play. If you think you understand the United States, go see this play....

Meet The New Medea, Same as the Old Medea

October 22, 2023

Well, maybe not. Marcus Sharp (played by Tom Hewitt) is a gay, cis male contemporary version of the mythical Medea who, as revenge on her partner for leaving her, kills her two sons along with her partner’s new love and the lover’s father. In playwright...

An Affair to Remember: Harold Pinter’s Betrayal in Wellfleet

September 24, 2023

One of the most powerful aspects of Harold Pinter’s work is in the spaces he creates between the lines spoken by his characters. It’s in the silences, in the pauses, that the more visceral story is being told, and in no other work is this more apparent...

Harbor Stage Company’s Summer Ghost Story: The Thin Place

August 14, 2023

The stage is nearly bare: two chairs and a table. That’s it. And as the play begins, the house lights are kept on (later all the lights will be turned off), a disconcerting experience that sets the stage—pun intended—for Lucas Hnaith’s The Thin Place,...

It Doesn’t Get More “Fantastik” Than This

July 16, 2023

Comedy? Check. Romance? Check. A little drama? Naturally. A great score? Absolutely. A drop-dead funny and talented cast? For sure. David Drake and the Provincetown Theater have brought yet another amazing musical to the stage, with some fun gender-swapping,...

Love Your Willy: The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged) at WHAT

July 3, 2023

Thirty-seven plays in under two hours. Are you ready? Take a deep breath, because you’re about to be plunged into an incredibly energetic, frenetic, whirlwind tour of the Bard that will make you, as one of the characters says, truly “love your Willy.”...