Reviews
Fine acting in New Milford ‘Doubt’
John Patrick Shanley’s award-winning drama “Doubt,” now at TheatreWorks in New Milford, is a chilling example of morality gone mad. What is it about righteousness that causes the heart to go cold, and moral certainty to blind the mind to reason? “Doubt” may be a familiar story of a witch hunt, but it is beautifully…
TheatreWorks leaves no ‘Doubt’ about it…the show’s a hit
It’s not surprising that John Patrick Shanley’s drama “Doubt” won the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize. It’s a great play. What makes it so outstanding is that important universal themes are woven throughout the play. “Doubt” deals with issues from religion, to race, to sexism. You couldn’t ask for a more timely play, since political…
John Patrick Shanley’s “Doubt” at New Milford TheatreWorks
Doubt is a somber four-character play about the conflict between the principal of a Catholic school in the Bronx and a young priest assigned to her parish. The drama opens with a sermon in which the priest extols the lack of surety about the most pressing life questions parishioners inevitably harbor. He declares that doubt itself…
‘Fourth Wall,’ A Departure For Its Playwright, Still Handled Well By TheatreWorks New Milford
NEW MILFORD — A.R.Gurney, chronicler of the decline of the American WASP, probably best known for the frequently produced Love Letters and the man-woman-dog love triangle Sylvia, is probably the most accessible and likeable play-writing today. From The Dining Room and The Cocktail Hour to Scenes From American Life and numerous others, I have never…
‘All the World’s a Stage’ TheatreWorks Brilliantly ‘Redecorates’, With ‘The Fourth Wall’
Anyone familiar with theater knows of the “fourth wall,” that imaginary barrier at the front of the stage through which viewers watch the onstage action. It is the boundary between reality and the imagined world of the playwright, the line between the fictional world and the audience. So what happens when this boundary is broken?…
‘Fourth Wall’ serves as spoof of theater, politics
So what do playwrights do in their spare time? If Roxbury’s A.R. Gurney is a prime example, they write more plays. Not plays necessarily meant for Broadway, but works in which the playwright (Gurney) can have fun using his skills to poke fun at the hand that feeds him (theater) as well as one of…
A.R. Gurney’s The Fourth Wall at New Milford’s TheatreWorks
There is more to playwright A. R. Gurney than meets the eye. Some critics view him as a dramatist who has a flair for depicting characters who inhabit a genteel, waspish world. Yet signs of a widened sensibility are also apparent in the work of the Buffalo-born playwright. Many of his dramas have small casts,…
Grief, hope play out in Rabbit ‘Hole’ – 5 out of 5 Stars
Becca and Howie Corbett are a typical young married couple with a small child. When a tragic accident befalls their young son, grief takes hold of them so profoundly that their marriage and lives are drained almost to empty. The strain of that loss has affected every aspect of their lives and they look at…
Rabbit Hole at New Milford’s Theatre Works
“Rabbit hole,” according to the dictionary, is “a bizarre or difficult state or situation.” The phrase comes from the plight of Lewis Carroll’s character, Alice (of Wonderland and Looking Glass fame). After dropping down a hole, Alice describes her ensuing experiences as “curiouser and curiouser.” The same might be said about David Lindsay-Abaire’s drama Rabbit Hole,…
A Very Enjoyable ‘Rabbit Hole’
‘NEW MILFORD — David Lindsay-Abaire, who won Awards for his work as the 4uthor and lyricist for the musical Shrek, wrote Rabbit Hole on the advice of one of his teachers at Juilliard, who told him to write a play about “something that frightened him.” As a father, he came up with the idea of a story…