by Roseann Cane If “Call me Ishmael” is the most famous opening sentence of an English-language novel, surely “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” is a very close second. The first, of course,…
How do you depict a prize fight onstage without the boxers landing a single blow? In The Royale, playwright Marco Ramirez takes on this challenge, reaching for every theatrical tool in his arsenal to bring to life this electrifying production inspired by the struggles of iconic black heavyweight Jack Johnson. …
by Roseann Cane “There is nothing permanent except change.”  –Heraclitus As the lights come up we see two people, a mature woman wrapped in a mink and a handsome man on the outskirts of middle age, peering into the distance. They stand parallel, about a couple of yards apart, in…
by Roseann Cane In 1927 the German physicist Werner Heisenberg posited what is often referred to as the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle: it is not possible to measure simultaneously the position and the velocity of an object, even in theory. Playwright Simon Stephens has said that this quantum theory seems to…
by Roseann Cane The only way to truly understand the impact of a crisis is to put a face on it, to humanize it, to make it accessible on a feeling level. We may read about current events, but as ghastly as it is to read about families being torn…
by Roseann Cane In the days following the end of the Civil War, a young Confederate soldier named Caleb (Justin Pietropaolo) painfully makes his way into his once-grand Richmond family estate to find the place in ruins. Caleb, too, is in ruins: a bullet in his leg has been left…
by Roseann Cane There are rare occasions when audience hooting, hollering, and foot-stomping add to the enjoyment of a night of theater, and Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash, which just opened at the Capital Repertory Theatre, is a sterling example of just such a treat. One of the…
by Roseann Cane I was just shy of 15 when Hair opened off-Broadway and began to cause a stir in 1967, a pivotal time in American culture. When a significantly revised version of the show opened on Broadway in 1968, it rapidly permeated the culture it reflected. It’s impossible to…
