Historic Northampton presents Pulling at the RootsThree Plays About Northampton History produced by Plays in PlaceAugust 24 – September 3, 2023Staged in the recently restored historic barn and on the grounds of Historic Northampton Commissioned by Historic Northampton and produced by Plays In Place, Pulling at the Roots is a…

by Paula Kaplan-Reiss The sun starts to set on a glorious late spring evening over Shakespeare & Company’s outdoor Roman Garden Theatre. As the birds chirp and fly overhead and 40’s music is piped in, we are in a perfect setting for a love story: Ken Ludwig’s Dear Jack, Dear…

by Macey Levin An isolated lighthouse sets the scene for  Eugene Ionesco’s The Chairs at Shakespeare & Company’s Tina Packer Playhouse in Lenox, Massachusetts.  James Warwick has directed a quirky and provocative production of one of the classics of The Theatre of  the Absurd. The plays of Jean Genet, Samuel…

by Barbara Waldinger Shakespeare & Company’s production of The Chairs has shaved off Ionesco’s sharp edges, anything unpleasant or uncomfortable, focusing instead on the relationship between an Old Man (Malcolm Ingram) and Old Woman (Barbara Sims) who have been married for seventy-five years.   The Old Woman begs her husband…

by Christopher Tucci Audiences heading to The New Spruce Theater, where 40 foot spruce trees are the natural backdrop to the three-quarter round stage, to see Shakespeare and Company’s King Lear should be prepared for an evening outdoors. Frequent patrons of Tanglewood are familiar with the routine: bug spray, a…

by Barbara Waldinger “I live off the suffering of strangers.  I build a career on the sorrows of people I don’t know and will never see again. . . I’m such a fraud.” These concerns are expressed by international photojournalist Sarah Goodman in a revealing moment as she recuperates from…

by Barbara Waldinger Kevin G. Coleman, the Director of Education and founding member of Shakespeare & Company, and runner-up for the Tony Award for Excellence in Theatre Education (2016), believes that “The Merry Wives of Windsor is Shakespeare having fun.  Period.  No grand themes. No deep waters.”  And that’s what…

by Macey Levin   First came the earthquake, then the tsunami that devastated villages, inundated farms, caused massive beach erosion and flooded a nuclear power plant along the English coast.  All this occurs before the beginning of Lucy Kirkwood’s The Children, a provocative play currently enjoying an intelligent and engrossing…