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Hartley Parker

Mrs. Loman

February 9, 2025

The play is not very consistent with life in 1949. It is unlikely that middle class married women cursed, smoked marijuana, quoted Simone de Beauvoir or engaged in affairs with other women. While the program notes by the playwright describe "Mrs. Loman" as a “feminist critique” of the Arthur Miller play and reveals that the author feels that the original “does not provide for a full female character,” Linda’s studying philosophy at Brooklyn College does not make for a feminist statement. In fact, Beauvoir’s "The Second Sex" which Linda quotes from was not published in English until 1953 which means Linda could not have been studying it in an American class in 1949. [more]

Lilies, or The Revival of a Romantic Drama

May 19, 2021

"Lilies" is an attempt at old-fashioned theater or to couch a modern story in old-fashioned trappings. The problem with the play for modern audiences may be stated in its subtitle, “The Revival of a Romantic Drama.” Unfortunately, the first New York production of veteran Canadian playwright Michel Marc Bouchard’s controversial play neither does it justice nor is it very convincing. The gay triangle and the insidious homophobia appear up to date but the trapping of the play are that of another era, one that is foreign to most actors alive today, and certainly more operatic than most theater audiences expect. [more]