Tom Williams

Jon Steinhagen is a multi-talented playwright, actor and musician whose new play–The Analytical Engine now playing at Circle Theatre-is a throw-back comedy of manners set in 1850 with a modern sensibility.

The ensemble work here is first-class and the real life husband and wife team of John Mossman and Kathy Scambiatterra anchor the work with their steadfast and truthful performances as the Antrobus parents.

Return to Haifa is splendid drama that humanizes the shared events during a crises and how one reacts to traumatic events. The two mothers exchange stories about what happened to them and their infants. We witness how events can determine the fate of families.

The story takes place thirty years in the future with America on the brink of another civil war as over population, unemployment and water shortages lower living standards across the USA. A seven party system and persuasive multi-media create a leaderless country in rapid gridlock.

Fugard parallels Antigone’s fight against political and patriarchal government with the loss of dignity at the island prison. La Shawn Banks and Kamal Angelo Bolder are superb as each truthfully portray the pent-up rage from their constant harassment by the prison guards.

…reunited Bertie Wooster (the fabulous Christian Gray) and his unflappable butler Jeeves (the brilliant Jim McCance) in another wacky British comedy of manners based on the P.G. Wodehouse characters. Margaret Raether captures the zaniness and comic wit of Wodehouse aptly.

Lisa Loomer’s dramatic yet funny look at the struggle to raise a precious, manic, strong-willed child in the modern world of quick fixes and pill-popping gets a stinging presentation at American Theatre Company under the swiftly flowing direction from PJ Paparell

Chicago playwright Tony Fiorentino (Lease on Love, Cold Cold Feet, Fraternal Instinct, My Dinner with Amy and All My Love) has amassed a fine body of work over the last five years. His latest world premiere, Lucid, is a smart work that explores the mystery and enticement of lucid dreams as used to transform one’s unsatisfactory life.

My fond memories of this great show were reinforced. The three plus hours living with Weston’s was totally engrossing and richly rewarding. Tracy Lett’s deserves all the Jeff, Tony and Pulitzer’s he has received for the first great 21st Century American play!

In Blue Door, an African-American math professor, Lewis (played with dignity by Bruce A. Young), is left by his white wife due to his reluctance to embrace his identity. The 90 minute one-act covers the night of their break as Lewis is visited in one sleepless night by the spirits of the instant ghosts of his grand-father, Simon, his departed younger brother, Rex and Jesse, his sharecropper grandfather.