Reviews for Different Stages Performances
Review: A Number by Different Stages
by Michael Meigs
Published on April 27, 2009
Churchill's texts are plosive monologues. Ideas and questions rush out out father and son, as each only half-listens to the other.
The concept of human cloning is profoundly unsettling.We like the fact each of us is unique. Individuality situates us in the universe and in our own skins. Each of us might fantasize a different reality or our self as a different individual, but we intuit that even those avatars, if realized, would be unique.The existence of fraternal twins or triplets is nature's benevolent random trick that reinforces our faith in our own individuality. Nature has …
Review: Miss Witherspoon by Different Stages
by Michael Meigs
Published on January 12, 2009
Underwood herself is worth well more than the price of admission, and at times the piece becomes a one-woman show. Hovering in that unexpected afterlife, she longs for release, rest and forgetfulness.
Jennifer Underwood is larger than life. Like famous stage personalities, she captures our attention utterly with her remarkable appearance, conviction and an acting talent that amounts almost to shape-changing. In Miss Witherspoon, directed by Karen M. Jambon for Different Stages and now playing at the City Theatre, Underwood is a deeply disappointed soul in the afterlife, determined not to give in to the requirement that she be reincarnated. Sometimes, with her stubborn will, she prevails; …
Review: Getting Married by George Bernard Shaw, Different Stages
by Michael Meigs
Published on November 19, 2008
Shaw delights in putting all sorts of contrarian observations into the mouths of his characters. For example, Reg’s soon-to-be-ex-wife Leo scandalizes the men when she declares that she would quite like to have several husbands.
George Bernard Shaw wrote Getting Marriedexactly a century ago. To my delight, I discovered that the New York Times makes available a copy of Catherine Welch’s 3800-word review of May 24, 1908, a full page of the paper, including sketches of GBS and two actors. I haven’t read it yet, because with some difficulty I impose on myself the discipline of writing my own review before consulting others. But I couldn’t avoid absorbing Mrs. Welch’s …