Sunday, February 25, 2024
If only "Becoming a Man"'s pathos were less streamlined, its theatricality more ambitious.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 12:36PMSunday, February 18, 2024
By Bill Marx Must the stage only discreetly charm the bourgeoisie? “I have long argued that theater alone cannot achieve any social change,” posited the Scottish dramatist and director J…
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 12:54PMTuesday, February 13, 2024
The time is overdue for a substantial discussion of what is happening (or not happening) in Boston-area theaters. Just don't expect to see anything in our sheepish mainstream media.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 05:36PMSunday, January 21, 2024
Set in New York in the mid-'50s, "Trouble in Mind" is a backstage dramedy that draws on the genre’s interest in the ambiguities of role-playing to condemn racial bias.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 11:02AMTuesday, October 24, 2023
The journalistic value of blathering out weekend tips to the ears of the comfortable in a social media world awash with likes is dubious.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 12:03PMSunday, October 1, 2023
In "Fat Ham," Black pain and repressed desire are transformed into a celebration of liberation and empowerment -- once the villain de jure, the violent, tyrannical patriarchy, has been dispa…
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 04:33PMThursday, September 28, 2023
Dramatist Donald Margulies seems to be putting his hand on the heart of the heartland -- as well as taking the pulse of a pair of aging boomers.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 05:03PMSaturday, September 23, 2023
Canada is far enough from New York and Broadway to ignore their siren drum beats.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 12:07PMTuesday, September 5, 2023
For a semi-Shavian like myself, the Shaw Festival once again proved that it was the place to be.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 01:55PMSaturday, July 29, 2023
This uncomplicated version of Shakespeare's tragedy comes off as a rousing tale of murder under a starlit Boston sky that obligingly lights Macbeth's "black and deep desires."
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 11:25AMThursday, June 29, 2023
Anna Ziegler's play is based on a true story that still resonates powerfully: how science (and society) hides uncomfortable truths.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 11:33AMSunday, June 11, 2023
In the Actors' Shakespeare's Project's likable staging of As You Like It, love looks pretty durable.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 03:13PMThursday, June 8, 2023
The Gaaga's humor is driven by rage, anger, and disgust, emotions that are not often found in our domesticated (for easy consumption) theater scene.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 01:13PMMonday, March 20, 2023
How can we create theater that practices critique and empathy in relation to climate change that simultaneously challenges and lifts us, provokes and provides a muscular hope?
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 10:52AMMonday, March 6, 2023
If the production sends at least some of the audience members back to the magnificent poetry of The Canterbury Tales, it would have done a mitzvah.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 10:53AMFriday, February 24, 2023
It is refreshing to encounter a script that is so determined to keep audiences off-kilter as it goes about undercutting domestic business as usual.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 08:53AMFriday, February 3, 2023
Made in China 2.0 is valuable as an act of theatrical witnessing, the voice of a rebel who is facing considerable challenges from the powers that be.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 11:53AMWednesday, December 28, 2022
Our theater critics pick some of the outstanding productions in a year haunted by COVID.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 06:32PMMonday, November 28, 2022
Do we feel the environment breakdown in our gut? Will people looking back see art that conveyed the existential threat of the emergency?
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 11:03AMFriday, October 28, 2022
In his virtuoso one-man show, Bill Irwin pays adroit homage to the language and vision of Samuel Beckett.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 02:03PMThursday, October 27, 2022
The story has the earmarks of YA fiction: a community of dysfunctional adults contribute to the plight of alienated kids who, badgered by persecutors their own age, seek to escape their torm…
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 04:13PMSunday, September 18, 2022
It shouldn't be surprising that Heroes of the Fourth Turning is monotonously ironic. No happy warriors for Christ here.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 02:07PMFriday, July 29, 2022
Shakespeare's text has been streamlined for easy consumption on a summer's evening -- there's no intermission, lots of physical comedy, and a party vibe.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 02:54PMFriday, June 24, 2022
This is an indelibly zany concoction: part homage, part esprit de corps, part mediation on screwball comedy as a form of modest but invigorating cheer.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 12:24PMSunday, June 12, 2022
This is a quicksilver drama about how a loving couple reacts as devastating bolts of lightning strike.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 09:54AMWednesday, June 8, 2022
Maybe I am an alarmist and the rich and powerful know something the rest of us don't. Perhaps the midterms will not put another nail in the coffin of democracy. Apparently, it will be busine…
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 06:03PMTuesday, May 24, 2022
What will guarantee obsolescence? If members of the BTCA continue to embrace a "whatever is, is right" attitude to Boston's stage scene.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 11:33AMSaturday, May 14, 2022
Personable but bracing, Sea Sick delivers an essential message: not only about the damage that is being done to the oceans, but the horrors that are coming down the pike.
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 09:12AMSaturday, April 30, 2022
"Plays about climate are notoriously difficult , not only because the science is complex and has become politicized, but also because audiences don’t flock to work that shows us the terrif…
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 11:48AMWednesday, April 20, 2022
Non-binary people have plenty to be angry about these days, but Burgerz is not an attempt to shock or strike back in anger.
The post Theater Review: “Burgerz” — Food Court appeared fir…
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 12:18PMTuesday, April 19, 2022
"The play challenges us to think about those we consider our enemies, and to think of them with compassion and understanding."
The post Theater Interview: John Bell on Bread and Puppet’s S…
SOURCE: The Arts Fuse at 02:18PM 
