Ben Beckley Archives - TheaterScene.net

Ben Beckley

Indian Princesses

May 31, 2026

The play is interesting and enlightening for those of us not aware of this chapter of American history. However, the author doesn’t make it easy for the audience to follow the characters: all nine characters, fathers and daughters, are introduced simultaneously in the first scene so that it is difficult to know who is who and who goes with which. There are ways of introducing a great many characters in groups so that we can keep them differentiated but Rodriguez has not done that. Plus the characters do not always call each other by name which would help sort out the confusion. [more]

In Corpo

June 30, 2023

Press materials promise a work that is inspired by Kafka's "The Castle" and Melville's "Bartleby, the Scrivener." Both are name checked – the lead character is called K, played by a clear-voiced Zoe Siegel, and there is even a Bartleby (Austin Owens Kelly, doing triple duty on synthesizer and later acoustic guitar) who says "I prefer not to" very often – but "In Corpo" also owes something to Vaclav Havel's "The Memorandum" with its depiction of bureaucracy gone mad. Of course, not even Havel could have envisioned the tyranny of the complex password, something "In Corpo" uses to excellent comic effect. The show is at its best when it satirizes things that everyone has to deal with, such as passwords and inane tasks. [more]

Dying For It

January 14, 2015

Dying for It, Moira Buffini’s free adaptation of The Suicide, is fine as a drama but the premise makes it a classic farce. Unfortunately, the Atlantic Theater Company production fails to find the humor in this dark comedy. As such the contemporary parallels to our own time do not become obvious as either satire or humor. [more]