by SOPHIE KERMAN When a play’s design can elicit gasps within the first five minutes, and when it can keep an audience of seasoned theater-goers laughing for over two hours, it puts the reviewer in a truly difficult position. Despite wanting to steer clear of cliche, there is no way around it: how else to describe…
by EMILY MEISLER, guest reviewer Appomattox, a new play by Christopher Hampton and commissioned by the Guthrie Theater, presents two distinct snapshots of American history: April 1865, the end of the Civil War; and April 1965, after the death of Jimmie Lee Jackson and just before the passage of President Johnson’s Voting Rights Act. While these…
by SOPHIE KERMAN Aside from honoring the Twin Cities’ most hard-working and talented theater professionals, the Ivey Awards also provides reviewers and theater fans with a chance to see how they did. What must-see shows did we miss this year? And did we agree with the Ivey committee’s choices? Here is a list of this year’s…
By MIRA REINBERG Some of playwright and screenwriter Christopher Hampton’s most refined plays contemplate the conjunction of history and literature. Such was the exquisite screenplay of Dangerous Liaisons, which brought to life the cynicism and manipulation of life in eighteenth-century French court and pushed its travesties to the limit. Likewise, his adaptation of Atonement dramatized…
by SOPHIE KERMAN Contemporary theatre has a wide range of potential – to break new artistic ground, to offer pointed social commentary, to provide audiences a window into the lives of others. The Brothers Size, performed in the Guthrie Theater’s Dowling Studio, tries to do all three. But while the play’s vague nods to Yoruba-inspired mythology¹ do…
by CHRISTINE SARKES SASSEVILLE and ERIKA YASMEEN SASSEVILLE The Guthrie Theater’s new musical production of Roman Holiday, based on the iconic 1953 movie and book by Paul Blake, has all the glamour, glitz and stylish corniness you would expect from a romantic comedy set to classic, toe-tapping Cole Porter tunes performed by a fabulous live pit orchestra (under…
by CHRISTINE SARKES SASSEVILLE James Baldwin’s The Amen Corner (directed by Penumbra Theater’s Lou Bellamy) tackles faith, poverty, racism and sexism in a superbly acted ensemble performance at the Guthrie Theater’s Wurtele Thrust Stage through June 17. The beautifully rendered 1950s Harlem neighborhood set comes alive immediately upon entering the theater, with assorted street characters wandering on and off stage…
by SOPHIE KERMAN When it comes time to justify their work, the testimony of an artist speaks to much more than simply the words on the page. Although Are You Now or Have You Ever Been… is framed around Langston Hughes’ 1953 hearing in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee, it is not Hughes’ sympathies…
by MIRA REINBERG, Guest Reviewer Once in a while we – the media, readers, and spectators – allow ourselves to open up the questions that are inherent to reportage of modern war: in what ways is war journalism ethical? And whom does it serve? Do photographs and descriptions from the war zone effect change…
by SOPHIE KERMAN In 1925, when Noël Coward wrote Hay Fever, going to the theater could be thought of as the pre-TV equivalent of staying in and watching Netflix. And just like a good night of TV, the theater has the potential to offer something for everyone – suspenseful drama, for those who want to…
