In L’Amour à Passy, Benjamin Franklin the man emerged as a frowzy, flawed, and crafty roué, relentlessly attempting to seduce the married Mme Brillon. Franklin deftly engaged and modified his façon de parler and wits to enamor the charming Brillon while also initiating, to no avail, games of chess with personal stakes to tarnish Brillon’s marital honor.
This cast deserves high praise for maintaining the challenging, complex characters and tensions while also charming and engaging viewers who could not resist being sympathetic and moved. Their performances were effective, stimulating, and inventive.
As the cast masterfully characterized Shakespeare’s saturnine work, we were inexorably drawn into the portentous tale. Supporting the account were the dim penumbra of macabre images, a panoply of sounds effects, striking musical soundscapes, the intense angular stage blocking of secondary characters in many scenes, and the gloom of a Scottish deid bell that either sought orisons or repelled evil spirits.
This play production “Susan B” reminds us that Susan B. Anthony was an astounding, courageous voice in a wilderness who, at her peril, evoked an awakening of clear thinking, reflection, and debate.
Human nature prevails as little has changed since Henrik Ibsen’s portrayal of “Hedda Gabler” in 1891 Norway. In tonight’s “Hedda Gabler,” we witnessed the meandering deviltries of the pistol-packing soubrette and worldly young wife Hedda (Natalie Menna). Hedda contrives to eradicate her paunchy older husband Tesman’s (John Cencio Burgos) rival Eilert Lovborg (Brad Fryman), for a university post.
The men were dapper, the ladies elegant, they were all beautiful, and together drew viewers into the time best befitting each Irving Berlin song’s historical context. We heard charming anecdotes while reveling in the choreography, lighting, sound, costumes, dancing, singing, and the orchestra — it was all as it should be in a joyous evening of smiling and nostalgia with wonderful music, singing, and dancing.
The troupe aptly expressed the story with its twists and turns, plot and subplots, and its sojourn into the supernatural world of the night forest. We were indeed transported into the supernatural moonlit dreamscape of fairies. We experienced the mystical, love potions, and the droll interactions of humans and pixies.
This is a psychological thriller where complex characters are sustained in an ever-changing dreamscape. It’s akin to being trapped in a Salvador Dali painting or episode of The Outer Limits or Twilight Zone.
Love, Sex & Real Estate captures the imagination throughout within its rich context of possibilities exuding from human frailty, the complexity of relationships, and the dangers associated with love triangles.
It is an evening of bonding, learning, and exploring as Orietta Crispino single-handedly cooks for the audience and tells a version of her story of how she ended up here. She insists it will not be about the past but reading the signs of the future.
