Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, June, 2008 George Bernard Shaw grouped his earliest published plays into volumes entitled Pleasant and Unpleasant. Using that system, Ronan Noone’s The Atheist, currently on the Nikos Stage at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, is decidedly an Unpleasant Play. An Unpleasant Play is not a Bad Play,…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, June, 2008 Ah, the American mental health system. My most recent brush with it entailed a therapist who demanded that I “get something” out of therapy, not just “talk about things.” Since I didn’t get what it was I was supposed to be getting, and…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, June 2008 If you are not already familiar with Chris Van Allsburg’s 1984 book The Mysteries of Harris Burdick I suggest that you get hold of a copy and read it before seeing this show. It will not take you more than 10 minutes and my local…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, June 2008 I defy anyone to dislike this show. It is just so funny and heartwarming, and contains some truly beautiful songs penned by William Finn. There’s something here for the whole family to enjoy. What’s not to like? The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, June 2008 Men have this problem with women. They want us to be virgins, they want us to be whores, they want us to be mothers. So they have created the impossible ideal of the Virgin Mother, which generations of women have been punished for…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, June 2008 On Friday night and Saturday afternoon I saw two romantic comedies, written about 70 years apart. Guess which one is considered a classic. We open on an upper-middle class British couple, married a good dozen years, parents of two children. Enter another man:A)…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, June 2008 The morning after I saw Tina Packer’s production of All’s Well That Ends Well, I was sorting through my press kit and complaining to my younger son. The show was too long, my rear end fell asleep, the script is lousy, Packer had inserted…
Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, June 2008 Last year, when Shakespeare & Company opened with a production of Tom Stoppard’s Rough Crossing, many of my colleagues proclaimed it a “laugh riot.” I didn’t, because it wasn’t. It was certainly good fun, but it was not hilarious. But this year’s season opener, The…
