Wednesday, December 18, 2024
Montreal's Mainline Theatre has brought “Gratitude” by Oren Safdie to New York's Urban Stages, and it is quite a strong premier for the show. Set in a private school in Canada in a disused locker room, the play explores teen sexuality (quite vividly), gender and consent. Throw in the clash between Canadian and the more traditional societies from whence some of its immigrants have come, and you have a play that is tense and uncomfortable to watch in places. The discomfort is deliberate. Indeed, it could be the whole point for some. “Gratitude” opens up a lot of topics that make
Tag: Urban Stages
Helping Theatre Survive the Current Unpleasantness
Stagebiz.com has been the beneficiary of a lot of support and plain affection from the NY theatre industry in the last few years. From the big Broadway shows to the black-box theatres to the press agents large and small, each has been more than generous to our reviewers and by extension our readers. In order to keep as many afloat as possible, we are going to provide you links that will allow you to give what you can to aid these artists and entrepreneurs during the pandemic. One of my personal favorites is Frigid New York in my old neighborhood -- the
“Death of a Driver” at Urban Stages
The two hardest types of theatrical production to pull off are polar opposites in complexity. On the one hand, there is the classic Broadway musical that requires a range of talents and has so many moving parts that it's a miracle any of them succeed. On the other, there is the simple play involving two people just talking, which is difficult because so much hinges on so little – just words as they are delivered. Will Snider's “Death of a Driver” is clearly of the latter class, and it is largely successful in delivering the words with a punch. Sarah (Sarah
ALTERNATING CURRENTS at Urban Stages
ALTERNATING CURRENTS is a heart-felt ode to the utopian ideal of community driven co-op housing in NYC. It’s a gritty excavating of systemic racism, union failure, mixed race marriage challenges and the desire for belonging. It poses probing questions about community engagement and the pressures associated with toeing the line. It’s a slick, energetic production that scratches beneath the faded veneer of the golden age of post-World War II American prosperity. The Working Theater’s Five Boroughs/One City Initiative encompasses five teams of commissioned writers and directors tasked with collaborating with working people to create an original play that is firmly rooted