The Puritans in New England lived fearful, close-minded, claustrophobic lives. Disdainful of all other Christian sects (especially Catholics and Quakers) and of the Native Americans who they were certain worshipped Satan, they were terrified they would burn in Hell forever if they strayed from the tiny path their narrow-minded, authoritarian religious leaders set out for […]
Tag: Charles Askenaizer
Posted inTheater Review
Democracy under siege
Invictus Theatre Company delivers a solid, sometimes stirring, and strikingly relevant rendition of William Shakespeare’s 1599 tragedy. It’s the story of Marcus Brutus (played by Invictus artistic director Charles Askenaizer, who also directed), a well-intentioned aristocrat in the waning days of the ancient Roman Republic, who joins a plot by his fellow senators to assassinate […]
Posted inTheater Review
Living room absurdism
It may be difficult to comprehend today just how shocking Edward Albee’s drama Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was when it premiered in October 1962, the same week that the Cuban missile crisis began. While the atomic fireworks the world feared never happened, Albee’s three-act, three-hour-plus masterpiece detonated an explosion that rocked American culture to […]
Posted inTheater Review
Hamlet for Halloween
Invictus Theatre’s intimate, bare-bones modern-dress staging of Hamlet is storefront Shakespeare at its best. The company’s stated aim is to “promote a better understanding . . . of heightened language . . . to express the breadth of the human condition,” and this dynamic, clearly spoken non-Equity production delivers. Director Charles Askenaizer guides the ensemble […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Merchant of Venice remains an ugly play for ugly times
1938 Italy provides the fascist framework for this Invictus staging.
Posted inArts & Culture
Escape to Margaritaville, ‘Tis the Seasonal Depression, and nine more new stage shows
A musical for Parrotheads and a comedy revue from GayCo are among this week’s best bets.