A Streetcar Named Desire

Outraged Hearts: “The Pretty Trap” & “Interior: Panic”

May 19, 2025

Unfortunately, The Fire Weeds’ production directed by Jaclyn Bethany (who appears in both plays) is very uneven. An attempt at expressionism handled differently in each does not work for these Tennessee Williams’ plays. While “The Pretty Trap” eschews props for pantomiming, in “Interior: Panic” lighting designer Zoe Griffith has taken the stage direction “the light is normal” and literally bathed the stage in pink-red light periodically to suggest Blanche’s hallucinations. However, this is both distracting and intrusive. Of course, theatergoers are likely to know the longer more famous versions which are more fleshed out and have pertinent information not in the one act versions. [more]

A Streetcar Named Desire (Almeida Theatre)

March 15, 2025

Even though the director, Rebecca Frecknall, honors most of the play’s dialogue, Blanche’s heartbreaking confession scene with Mitch (Dwane Walcott), her suitor, revealing the sad roots of her dysfunctional life, is truncated by several meaningful words; also, the play as written ends with the men arguing over a poker game as Stella quietly mourns in the arms of her landlady, Eunice (Janet Etuk, excellent). Here it is Stella’s mournful cries that bring the curtain down, distorting Williams’ message. [more]

Kowalski

January 31, 2025

Robin Lord Taylor as Tennessee Williams and Brandon Flynn as Marlon Brando in a scene from Gregg [more]

Drop Dead Perfect

August 29, 2015

Everett Quinton has found the ideal vehicle in the hilarious "Drop Dead Perfect" to revive the style of the Ridiculous Theatrical Company for which he originally found fame. Like the plays of the late Charles Ludlam plays, Erasmus Fenn’s Drop Dead Perfect parodies a specific genre using movie and television quotes and characters, situations lifted from famous melodramas, and sexual puns placed in new contexts. Here the new play is a satire of 1940’s and 50’s Bette Davis and Joan Crawford melodramas, with dollops of I Love Lucy which allows Quinton do sparkle as a Southern heiress with many scores to settle. Director Joe Brancato manages to keep the melodrama believable at all times and none of the quartet of actors goes beyond the histrionics inherent in the plot. [more]