REVIEWS

Black Ensemble’s fortieth anniversary season continues with a remount of its wildly popular musical revue The Jackie Wilson Story. First produced in 2000 and originally running for two years, this creation of Black Ensemble’s founding artistic director Jackie Taylor can be thought of as an quintessential Black Ensemble show, as it depicts the tumultuous life of a mid-twentieth century titan of African-American music, contrasted with the energy of his songs and a redeeming message.

Dustin Spence’s world premiere play The Promise of a Rose Garden, produced by Babes with Blades, depicts a hypothetical near future, and therefore, fictional events based on commonly held perceptions of soldiers, including its female protagonists.

The new theatre group Fraud & Phony defines themselves as a collective instead of a company, they say, because they are more concerned about producing their own works when they feel it is of particular benefit to the community than in sticking to a regular schedule. Their first work, Troll, by Elizabeth Archer, demonstrates strong potential, and for the incredibly low price of the tickets, has excellent production values.

In Thomas Klingenstein’s world premiere play Douglass, about an episode from the life of famed author, orator, and escaped slave Frederick Douglass, Klingenstein explores what he interprets as one such situation his subject encountered in New Bedford, Massachusetts prior to the Civil War. It could be a fascinating episode from the life of one of America’s most dramatic personalities, but unfortunately, the play is mostly static.