Eran Kolirin’s “The Band’s Visit,” onstage through December 17 at Boston’s Huntington Theatre, which is co-producing the play with SpeakEasy Stage, is a very polished, very melodious presentation of what can happen when two marginalized communities, respectively, Israeli and Arabic, realize that they may have more in common with each other than with the rather frigid embrace of their two ethnicities. It’s not an instant embrace, and not one without thorns, but the point is made believable, in many small and greater instances that one’s ‘family’ is an elastic concept. I’m on Page 22 of this musical’s program where the two principal actors, Brian Thomas Abraham and Jennifer Apple, stare at each other with visible tension from opposite ends of a wooden bench. Mr. Abraham is in the smart blue military uniform of his Egyptian band, while Ms. Apple, a mature, experienced … [Read more...] about JUBILATION FOR “THE BAND’S VISIT” AT THE HUNTINGTON THEATRE

Paula Vogel’s “How I Learned to Drive” is the powerfully gripping theater of a young woman arising out of an impoverished family and region of America to become abused by her uncle over a long period of time while both neighbors and immediate family look on unknowing and only carelessly, intermittently, caring. The play is being performed by the Actors’ Shakespeare Project through November 25 at the Roberts Studio Theatre at The Calderwood Pavilion in Boston. Uncle Peck, played be Dennis Trainor Jr., betrays, with the aid of this social wreckage, his better self and an innocent niece as a diabolical juggler who cares both too much and too little. Jennifer Rohn plays Li’l Bit, the abused child/woman who wants some control over her life in an environment where a woman’s control over both her social/economic status and sexuality is minimal. Any gains must continuously be wrested with all … [Read more...] about EMOTIONALLY AMBITIOUS: ACTORS’ SHAKESPEARE PROJECT’S INTENSELY ENGAGING TAKE OF VOGEL’S “HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE”

“The Taming of the Shrew” is infamously difficult to adapt due to its violent misogyny, but director Christopher V. Edwards flips the script with Actors’ Shakespeare Project’s gender-bending production. The setting is modernized to a red-hued ‘70s Disco with fun and colorful costuming thanks to Ben Lieberson and ​​Chelsea Kerl. The show stays faithful to Shakespeare’s text with only two major divergences that still manage to shift the entire narrative: the character of Sly and the ending. In the original’s often-cut introduction, the drunk Sly is duped into believing he is a nobleman for whom the subsequent play-within-a-play is performed. Here Sly, played by Michael Broadhurst, is instead convinced he is a woman and thrust into performing as Katherine, the titular shrew. Broadhurst has been cast as the only man playing against women and nonbinary actors. Sly is tricked by the Disco’s … [Read more...] about A MODERNIZED ‘SHREW’ ACTORS’ SHAKESPEARE PROJECT SHIFTS THE NARRATIVE

Authored by Hansol Jung, and directed by SeonJae Kim, “Wild Goose Dreams,” currently playing in the Roberts Studio Theatre of the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, is the acting out of a love affair between two Koreans. One, from the north, is Yoo Nanhee, a dutiful daughter living in the south after a tortuous escape, played by Eunji Lim. The other, Guk Minsung, acted by Jeffrey Song, tries to be a dutiful father holding a job in South Korea so that he can send money back to his wife and daughter in Connecticut, thereby enabling them to navigate the choppy seas of American capitalism. What makes their affair interesting, indeed captivating, is the balancing act both the principles must perform at every moment of their affair between eking out a living and living in a state as near as possible to romance, even, not to be corny, ‘True Love.’ On one … [Read more...] about SPEAKEASY STAGE BRINGS “WILD GOOSE DREAMS” TO THE BOSTON CENTER FOR THE ARTS

It’s a very intelligent play, is “Jado Jehad.” And it certainly shows — especially in the character of the Pakistani grandmother, Manzoor — how powerful culture is in both protecting us from life’s vicissitudes and exposing us to the torments of our own and the bearers of other cultures — especially if these other-culture bearers are family, to wit, Manzoor’s own daughter and grand-daughter. Fatima A. Maan’s play was performed at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre from February 16 through 26. It was directed by Bridget Kathleen O’Leary. Manzoor, played by Jyoti Daniere, has been dunked from a childhood in less global times in an old and highly complex culture to the nerve-endings of every tip of every finger. What she is not prepared for is an American-educated grand-daughter and a daughter whose upbringing was somehow, even without a stay in America, affected by the hegemony of … [Read more...] about MAAN EXPOSES CENTRAL STRUGGLES OF SHRINKING BUT NOT YET WIDELY TOLERANT WORLD IN JADO JEHAD AT BOSTON PLAYWRIGHTS’ THEATRE