**SPOILERS** A gunshot rings out near the end Buran Theatre’s challenging new play, Mammoth: A De-Extinction Love Story, and a mammoth drops dead. Following that, the shooter approaches the dead creature’s companion (another mammoth) and seeks to justify his actions. He relates to the surviving mammoth, by pointing out he too lost his wife “in a brou-ha-ha…ha…ha,” adding that he “never knows how many ha-ha’s … Continue reading REVIEW: MAMMOTH: A DE-EXTINCTION LOVE STORY

*SPOILERS* In considering Nat Cassidy’s absorbing new play, The Temple, or, Lebensraum, we would do well to first consider the many functions and responsibilities of adaptation. Cassidy’s play takes many elements from an H.P. Lovecraft short story from the 1920s called The Temple; though I think to say it is “inspired by” the story as Cassidy does in the playbill is indeed a more fair … Continue reading REVIEW: THE TEMPLE, OR, LEBENSRAUM

In preparation for The Debate Society’s new play Jacuzzi, I wrote a very long thing about the different narrative effects and meanings water has had in all of their plays. I was delighted to find that the fully functionally hot tub that is the centerpiece of this new production actually represents something very simple and obvious: wealth and status. Presented as the culmination of the company’s three-year residency with … Continue reading REVIEW: JACUZZI

See the black dots around the Silver Surfer in the image above? Those dots are called the “Kirby Krackle.” To the uninitiated twenty-first century observer, the dots may seem like a minor artistic embellishment used on a quaint periodical from half a century ago. In actuality these little dots were a kind of minor revolution; a technique employed by a master artist that showcases his … Continue reading REVIEW: KING KIRBY