Author Archives: Carol Burbank

One Flea Spare Naked Eye Theatre Company at the Goodman Theatre By Carol Burbank Playwright Naomi Wallace may be one of the few awardees whose work merits the popular nickname of her MacArthur fellowship: the “genius grant.” Her remarkable plays combine Brecht’s confrontation of the audience with Ibsen’s brutal realism and Chekhov’s comic sense of […]

SAVE THE DUCKS AND OTHER STORIES OF COURAGE, DIGNITY, EMBARRASSMENT, AND TOTAL COWARDICE, at the Lunar Cabaret. In her brief but endearing one-woman one-act, Rose Buckner introduces the audience to five earnest oddballs in what feels like a showcase or a loose collage, though these poignantly comic female monologues are reminiscent of Lily Tomlin’s characters. […]

FIRST BREATH: ABOUT FACE YOUTH THEATRE, About Face Theatre. This remarkable collaboration between About Face Theatre and kids from Horizons Community Services gives audiences an inspiring glimpse into the lives of queer teenagers. Eric Rosen’s intelligent staging uses percussive rhythms, high-energy music, and kaleidoscopic shifts in narrative style to shape their stories and poems. And […]

THE WAR BOYS, East Window Theatre Company. Naomi Wallace’s first play is set on three borders–the border between Mexico and the U.S., the border between adolescence and manhood, and the border between fantasy and reality. It is a violent and often beautifully written story about three young Texan men who have hired themselves out to […]

Conversation With a Diva Bailiwick Repertory By Carol Burbank Gay pride month is always a mixed bag. The parade may feature fabulous drag queens and heartfelt floats, but the spectacle is interrupted by dull stretches of product placement: a big truck advertising beer or reluctant aldermen waving hesitantly from unmarked cars. The entertainment in bars […]

WITHIN THE DREAM, Ma’at Production Association of Afrikan Centered Theatre, at Victory Gardens Theater. MPAACT’s production of Deidre Searcy’s multimedia play testifies to the steady improvement of this small, dedicated company. Although the decidedly undancerly troupe still struggles with demanding, often vague choreography meant to signify emotional or symbolic moments, the actors have begun to […]

NO SPLEEN, Empire Theatre Company, at Mary-Arrchie Theatre. This is Carolyn Cohagan’s intelligent, unexpectedly funny story of the year her spleen, and the doctors bent on curing her, nearly killed her. A young performer, Cohagan cut her teeth doing stand-up in New York and London. She has a gutsy approach to metaphor, taking ideas to […]